Castle Rock State Park
Directions: From Highway 85 through Saratoga, take Saratoga Avenue (Highway 9) west into the hills. Follow Highway 9 about 10 miles to Highway 35. Turn left onto 35 and drive about 2.5 miles south on 35 to the park entrance on the right.
Parking lot at the Castle Rock main entrance
The park entrance has a 1 toilet outhouse
The trailhead
Heading down the Saratoga Gap Trail
Image5.jpg
Image13.jpg
Image19.jpg
Image20.jpg
Image22.jpg
Image24.jpg
Image25.jpg
Image26.jpg
Image27.jpg
Image30.jpg
Image31.jpg
Image33.jpg
Image36.jpg
A banana slug
Image46.jpg
Image49.jpg
Image51.jpg
Image52.jpg
Image56.jpg
Image58.jpg
Lunch break in a covered area
Waiting our turn to pass
Another view out from the trail
Image68.jpg
Rock scramble
There is a big bird down on that rock, see it?
On Saturday, March 17, 2007, I joined in with the Stanford Outing Club for a hike at Castle Rock State Park.
The Route: Sarataga Gap Trail -> Ridge Trail -> Frog Flat Trail -> Travertine Springs Trail -> Saratoga Toll Road -> Saratoga Gap Trail -> Frog Flat -> Sarartoga Gap -> End
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: ~ 12 miles
Total ascent: ~ 2400 ft
Trailhead Elevation: 3027 ft
Max Elevation: 3027 ft
Moving time: 4 hrs 30 min
Moving Average: 2.5 mph
Overall average: 1.5 mph
Time stopped: 2 hrs
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
17-Mar-2007
Start time: ~ 10 AM
Weather: Sunny and warm, temperatures into the low 80’s
Water consumed: 3 liters plus 600 ml Gatorade
Finish time: ~ 4:30 PM
Total time: ~ 6 hrs 30 min
Beauty: Castle Rock is a beautiful park with tree shaded areas, flowing streams, and grand views.
Wildlife seen: Two coyotes, a snake, a western skink, a banana slug, and birds
Difficulty: This hike was billed as an easy one but I sure struggled on it! Most of the trails are not that steep but there are a lot of ups and downs and rock scrambles. That, and warm weather wore me out!
I had never hiked at Castle Rock before and it had been on my list of parks to visit. And so when “V” announced his plans to lead a group hike with the Stanford Outing Club it was a no-brainer for me to join in.
“V” tends to plan popular hikes and we had around 16 people for this one. We met at the Castle Rock main entrance and started our hike at about 10 AM. We took the Saratoga Gap Trail down a short distance to where we picked up the Ridge Trail. Unfortunately I forgot to turn on my GSP for this section and so it missing from the hike statistics. But the hike through this section was pretty and it felt good to be there.
At some points along this hike the trails ran generally flat along very steep sections of the hills to where it almost looked like vertical drops off the side. Some sections of the trail were very rocky creating scrambles we had to hike over. Indeed, one section had a line of cable attacked to the rock on the side of the trail to hold onto as you scramble over the section. I would have hated to slip there.
I have to admit that I am afraid of heights but one thing that helped create a sense of security along the steep drop-offs was the growth of brush and other vegetation on the down side right up to the trail creating almost a wall so you couldn’t see how precarious the trail probably really was. But on the other hand, the views out from the trail from these sections were fabulous! It was foggy out on the coast but I bet that if it weren’t, you probably could have seen the ocean.
Otherwise, “V” had advertised this hike as an easy one after the brutal hike up Mount Diablo the previous week. He projected this hike as being 12 miles with about 1500 feet of elevation gain. The distance was about right but the elevation was probably closer to 2400 feet.
And I don’t know why, but I really struggled on this hike. Maybe it was because it was a warmer day in the low 80’s. Maybe I still hadn’t fully recovered from Diablo. Maybe it was because I tried to hard to keep up with the younger, faster hikers, maybe it was the added difficulty of some of the terrain, or maybe it was all of that. I was completely exhausted before we finished and I felt worse the next day than I did for Mount Diablo.
To be sure, I had more aches and pains after Diablo than I did for Castle Rock, I was just more exhausted trying to finish Castle Rock than I felt making the summit at Diablo. I heard other hikers make similar comments. And given how that couple got lost and stuck for 5 days at Castle Rock the previous November, I can now understand why.
Castle Rock is a beautiful park with some great trails but from this first experience, I would not want to underrate its potential difficulty. This park can wear you out! Because of my exhaustion, I did not take some of the pictures I otherwise would have, but let’s see some of the pictures I did take.
