9 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain • 3 nights
Went here with a coworker and her family, for memorial day weekend. Was really more car camping, they had a huge setup and I had my backpacking gear (which, given that I'm still relatively new to camping, that's all I have). There were a lot of families here, every campsite was full of laughter from kids running around and playing ball. I however preferred to get some exercise.
The trails aren't half bad. They're well maintained and easy to walk on. I wore my Vibram 5 fingers and it was great. Everything is a bit sandy though. Sandy mountains are part of the unique geography of this place, and it makes for a primordial looking landscape. Check out the observation deck if you come here, the view is nice, and then there's tons of trails that branch out from there.
Lots of streams, and Open Street Map told me to cross streams in a few places where there was no bridge and no rocks to help. There were paths on the other side so I guess you have to know how to cross a stream to get to some of these trails. I'm still new so I didn't want to risk having to hike back 3 miles and 1,000 feet in wet vibrams (and didn't want to risk tripping and ruining my gear, including cell phone and solar panel), so I didn't cross, but now I'm kicking myself. I gotta learn to cross streams.
It's just north of Santa Cruz, so we spent half a day in town, including drinking beer because the camp has signs everywhere about how alcohol is prohibited. Then shared lots of fun stories around the campfire. The showers were really cold and I'm pretty sure that they run the clock fast. But good enough to get clean.
I would recommend this place. :-)
