Hiking Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Howdy! I hope your Monday was a breeze! Mine was a little rough after Vino de Mayo, but it wasn’t anything a long day at work couldn’t cure…ha!

Our hike on Saturday was probably the best we have been on thus far and I had a hard time narrowing down which pictures to post. I went a little nuts and put quite a bit on here but hopefully you will find them to be entertaining.

Before we left on Saturday morning, we made sure to distract the girls with Kongs so that we wouldn’t get any guilt trips for leaving them at home.

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After eating a filling breakfast and packing our lunches, we headed toward Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek, California (not Colorado Winking smile).

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Upon entering the park, we were immediately surrounded by enormous trees that gave off the most heavenly scent.

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We paid the $10 parking fee and grabbed a trail map then Brandon we got side tracked and stopped in their café for a fresh fruit smoothie.

The sign they had beneath the cash register was pretty funny so I had to take a picture of it.

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We decided on a strawberry and peach smoothie and then started out towards the first trail on our hike.

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As you approach the main area where the trails split off, there is a large outdoor theatre that was originally established in 1936 and is surrounded by seats that are carved out of big logs.

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The seats are pretty cool, huh?

Shortly after walking past the theatre, we reached the trail head that began our 11 mile hike.

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At first, the hike starts out in the woods with a good amount of shade to keep you cool.

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As we hiked along, we kept running into these little critters which we had to carefully avoid turning into road kill.

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In addition to detoxifying the air, the enormous Redwoods made for great scenery as we walked along.

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Eventually we ran into this slimy guy which is known as a banana slug.

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We later saw another one nestled in a tree. We were sure not to touch them though because I had read that the salt on our skin can kill them. Disappointed smile

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As we continued hiking, our surroundings became more green and the sound of water running was audible.

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Eventually, we started to hear a much louder roar of water and came upon this stunning view in the distance.

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Berry Creek Falls is about 4 miles into the hike so we were ready to eat lunch at this point and decided to sit on a bench with a perfect view of the waterfall.

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I had an almond butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat (inspired by Amanda) and Brandon had plain almond butter on his. He’s a ‘no jelly’ kind of guy.

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And, of course, we snacked on some of Trader Joe’s Trek Mix as well. I really wanted to bring the one with chocolate but I was afraid the chocolate would melt. Shifty

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Once we were nice and full, we hiked a few more minutes to get an up close view of the 70- foot waterfall.

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It was so beautiful and I would have loved to get in the water below it, but we didn’t have enough time to play around.

There were some other people who had the same idea though and it looked like they were having a blast down there.

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After you pass Berry Creek Falls, the trail takes you up alongside the waterfall so that you are able to see the top of the waterfall.

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Shortly after the first waterfall, you come upon a second one that is not quite as big but still beautiful.

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Then there are stairs beside that waterfall that take you up to another small set of falls.

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The last set was the smallest of the three but still so peaceful to look at. There were also quite a few places to sit and relax among the falls in this part of the hike.

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The waterfalls were certainly the highlight of the hike but we still had about 6 more miles to go! 

The second trail was completely different from the first as it opens up to the bright sunshine.

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There were some rocky areas that were a little tricky to navigate but Brandon had his trusty walking stick to help us.

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We also spotted a few butterflies and wild flowers along the way back to the Visitor’s Center.

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In total, it took us about five and a half hours to do 11 miles and we were exhausted. I still can’t fathom how people run marathons that are more than twice the distance we hiked. Insanity, I tell you!

The drive home was about an hour and half so I made sure to make reservations at a nearby restaurant to stop at on the way home.

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We both had a much-deserved glass of wine along with the cute little bread rounds and trio of sauces they served to us.

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It was a sruggle to stay awake during the meal but it was an excellent way to end the day!

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Oh, and in case you were wondering, we changed our clothes in the bathroom at the park by doing a very careful balancing act so that nothing touched the ground. Public restroom floors…ew.

If you enjoy hiking and are ever in the San Francisco Bay area, you have to check out The Berry Creek Loop at Big Basin, it was so awesome!