DSC05307.jpg
DSC05316.jpg
DSC05318.jpg
DSC05320.jpg
Big Basin, Sunset Camp
DSC05324.jpg
DSC05325.jpg
DSC05327.jpg
DSC05328.jpg
DSC05329.jpg
DSC05330.jpg
DSC05331.jpg
DSC05332.jpg
DSC05333.jpg
DSC05334.jpg
DSC05338.jpg
DSC05339.jpg
DSC05340.jpg
DSC05354.jpg
DSC05362.jpg
DSC05363.jpg
DSC05366.jpg
DSC05371.jpg
DSC05372.jpg
DSC05374.jpg
DSC05375.jpg
DSC05376.jpg
DSC05377.jpg
DSC05380.jpg
DSC05383.jpg
Berry Creek Falls
DSC05392.jpg
I hiked the Berry Creek Falls loop in Big Basin on September 2, 2006. The loop around the Berry Creek Falls is around 11 miles long and is a strenuous hike for the distance. I’m not in the best shape and getting a bit older and it takes me about 6 hours to hike it. I like it as a place to hike as you are mostly in the shade of redwood trees and there are some big ones there. You can also backpack in and camp out at Sunset Camp. I may try and do that someday. In the meantime here are some handheld digital pictures I have taken during my Summer 2006 hikes on the trail. Enjoy!
Directions: From Highway 85 through Saratoga, take Saratoga Avenue (Highway 9) west into the hills. Follow Highway 9 straight to the park. Don’t turn left, don’t turn right. Keep going straight through all intersections and you will go straight to the park.
Facilities: Restrooms, outhouses, picnic tables, BBQ, camping, backpacking camps, hiking trails.
On Saturday, August 2 and again on August 9, 20008 I hiked the Berry Creek Falls Loop at Big Basin.
The Route: Skyline to the Sea Trail -> Sunset Trail-> Berry Creek Falls Trail -> Skyline to the Sea Trail -> End
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: ~ 12 miles
Total ascent: ~ 2800 ft
Trailhead Elevation: ~ 1000 ft
Max Elevation: 1381 ft
Moving time: 4 hours ?
Moving Average: 2.5 mph
Overall average: 1.5 mph
Time stopped: 1 hour?
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
02-Sep-06
02-Aug-08
09-Aug-08
Start time: 12:45 PM
Weather: Sunny and clear, upper 70’s
Water consumed: 2 liters plus 600 ml Gatorade
Finish time: 5:45 PM
Total time: 5 hrs
Beauty: This is a gorgeous hike and one of my favorites in the Bay Area. The downside is that it is also very popular with more people on the trail then you might care to encounter if you are trying to get away from it all.
Wildlife seen: Just some birds
Difficulty: Considered strenuous for most people and a good workout for anyone. I always seem to be tired by the time I finish it and when you consider the elevation profile, it’s no wonder. This hike has more elevation gain to it than I realized, depending on the accuracy of TOPO! from my GPS tracks, it has perhaps 2800 feet of elevation gain!
Wooden bridge across the creek at park HQ
Sunset Trail
The Sunset Trail has lots of these
Hand held HDR with my point and shoot
Hiking down the Sunset trail
Open chaparral along the Sunset Trail
Golden Cascade Falls
Steps
More steps!
Look down from the top of Silver Falls
Silver Falls
Steps down from Silver Falls
Approaching Berry Creek Falls
Berry Creek Falls
Stellar’s Jay at Berry Creek Falls
Nearing the end along the Skyline to the Sea Trail
Skyline to the Sea Trail wooden bridge
Skyline to the Sea along the Creek at the end
Back in 2006 shortly after I first started hiking I discovered Big Basin and the Berry Creek Falls loop (see further down below for my first hike report). I went there 4 times that summer and thoroughly enjoyed the hike. It’s beautiful, if not somewhat strenuous, especially for the novice hiker.
Last year I bought a GPS and meant to go back in 2007 to document the trails through the saved tracks. I never did, that is until this month. And I didn’t go back just once. I went back twice. OK, the first time on August 2nd I forgot to turn on the tracks feature on my GPS and came away with nothing.
So I went back on August 9 and hiked it again and this time made a real point of turning on the tracks. And I did a rather standard loop, starting from the park HQ, crossing the little wooden bridge over the creek and turning right onto the Skyline to the Sea Trail. From there it’s a short hike to hook up with the Sunset Trail for the counter clockwise loop to the falls along the Berry Creek Falls Trail where you find the three water falls. From there you hook up again with the Skyline to the Sea Trail for the return hike back to park headquarters.
I always knew there was a lot of up and down hills in this hike but it still gave me a surprise. The stats directly from GPS made little sense to me, underestimating the known length of the hike by 5 miles. But when I imported the tracks into the National Geographic TOPO! program, I got the distance I expected, about 11.4 miles for the hike and over 2800 feet of elevation gain, quite a bit more than I thought!
See, I always thought of this as an easy hike that wore me out for no good reason. Well, maybe there is a good reason for that, given it is a moderately long hike and actually has a lot more elevation gain than I thought.
This is a respectable hike and a good workout. And it happens to be beautiful. If it has a fault, it is that it is maybe too popular and has more traffic on the trails than serious hikers probably care to run into.
For those people, I might suggest doing this hike during the week and not on the weekends. But either way, I put the Berry Creek Falls loop as one great hike. I dig it and I will be back. And now for a few of the latest pictures …
My First brief hike report from 4 hikes there that summer
