How to hike the 34-mile Skyline-to-the-Sea trail

Redwood trees line the trail in Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sunday 19, 2017 in Boulder Creek, Calif. Redwood trees line the trail in Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sunday 19, 2017 in Boulder Creek, Calif. Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close How to hike the 34-mile Skyline-to-the-Sea trail 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

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The first steps on the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail can be exhilarating: The 32.8-mile trail actually begins heading downhill.

From Skyline, at an elevation of 3,000 feet at Castle Rock State Park, the trail descends most of the way through Big Basin Redwoods and beyond down along Waddell Creek to Rancho del Oso and the coast at Highway 1. Along the way, you’ll see sweeping views of Monterey Bay, trek past the remote headwaters of the San Lorenzo River, through giant redwoods and drop-dead beautiful waterfalls, and then along a pretty coastal creek with tons of wildflowers.

Skyline-to-the-Sea provides a wilderness opportunity when the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Shasta-Siskiyou ranges are locked up with a snowpack 163 percent of normal. (After this winter’s barrage of snow, it will likely be well into July until most of the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra becomes accessible.) Unlike high-country expeditions, this trail isn’t a physical test, and you shouldn’t have trouble finding a campsite.

The best move is to break up the journey into three legs of 9.8 miles, 9.5 miles and 13.5 miles per day (including a 2-mile side trip to see waterfalls) and camp along the way for two nights at Waterman Gap and Jay Camp.

April and May is the best season of the year to do it, when the waterfalls are flush and the wildflowers are blooming. I try to complete a major part of it every April as a birthday present to myself. Note: Until temporary bridges are installed over Waddell Creek, an annual event that usually occurs by the last Saturday of April, you have to ford the creek about six miles from the end of the trip. Before the bridges go in, this is usually an easy but wet crossing (and we’ll get to that).

4 steps to prepare

1. Reserve your dates. The reservation system has been simplified by a new proprietary state park website for trail camps in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where you can review campsite availability by date. This is not the mainstream reservation service for state park camping.

2. Assemble your gear. Prepare like you would for an expedition in the High Sierra, where you carry all your gear on your back. Bring a backpacking stove, water filtration system and whatever it takes (tent, pad, sleeping bag, air pillow) to stay dry and warm and get a good night’s sleep. No campfires are permitted at the trail camps.

3. Check the trail conditions. Newcomers unfamiliar with the nuances of the route can buy trail maps from the Sempervirens Fund. In addition, for a section of trail closed by storm damage at Big Basin Redwoods, a detour is available. This is the wilderness. In other words, treat the landscape like nature’s church, and leave city behavior far behind. For much of the trail, cell phones are inoperable.

4. Leave a shuttle car. Unless you’re planning on hiking all the way back up the hill to the start, you’ll want to have a car waiting for you at the end. Drop your shuttle car at Rancho del Oso hiker’s parking lot on Highway 1. Register and pay the fee. Then drive to Castle Rock, park and “saddle up,” as we call it.

Know the trail

Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2011 Castle Rock, about a half mile from the trailhead is filled caves...

From Castle Rock State Park, you start on the Saratoga Gap Trail (which leads a short distance to a spur on the left to King Creek Falls). The trail is routed past honeycombed sandstone and the foot of Goat Rock, where the views to the west of Monterey Bay are spectacular. The trail passes Castle Rock Trail Camp and then drops down into far-less-traveled terrain. In deep forest, you pass the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River and crumbling foundations and structures from a historic ranch. You emerge at Waterman Gap (not far from Highway 9) for your first night’s camp. We make this trip during the week and have always had this camp to ourselves. 9.8 miles.

The next morning crosses through some of the region’s most accessible, and shortly later, most remote landscapes. The trail picks up where you cross Highway 9 and parallel twisty narrow Highway 236 (a road into Big Basin) before crossing China Grade and breaking into wildlands. At one point, you cross this sandstone face, where your boots grip like on sandpaper, with a pretty view across a sea of redwoods. The route eventually turns left and follows along a forested, knife-edge ridge, as remote as it gets, and then leads down into the basin floor. Camp at Jay Camp, reserved for trail hikers. 9.5 miles (mileage includes a jog off main trail to reach campground).

Waterfall side trip

Photo: Scott Peden 70-foot Berry Creek Falls is the destination for the region's best...

Out of Jay Camp near Big Basin headquarters, a short detour is required around a section of the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail closed by a slide and downed trees. This route rises through old-growth redwoods, then tops the Big Basin Rim and descends to Kelly Creek. It’s then an easy walk in redwoods to the spur on the right that leads to Berry Creek Falls, the 70-foot free fall. It’s another mile up the canyon to 60-foot Silver Falls, which is fed by the Golden Cascade. One of my single favorite spots anywhere is the brink of Silver Falls, where you can reach out from the cable rail and touch the water, then turn to your right, take two steps and see the final chute of the Golden Cascade.

Back on the main trail, it’s about a mile to the stream crossing of Waddell Creek. The temporary bridges usually go in at the end of April. To ford the stream, take off your socks and walk across with your bare feet in your boots, with a stick for support; then dry your feet and put your dry socks back on for hiking. If you are new to fording creeks, or feel anything but safe and comfortable making a crossing, delay your trip to when the bridges are installed.

The final stretch of the trail becomes a service road along Waddell Creek. It is routed amid forest and meadows, easy and light. As you near the coast, the flora often includes excellent wildflower blooms that peak in late April through mid-May. The final day is 11.5 miles, plus another 2 miles up and back to see the waterfalls, for 13.5.

When you arrive at your vehicle, a moment of exhilaration will take over you, just as you felt at the start. After all, you have just finished the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail. Some will head over to Waddell Beach to dip their toes in the sea.

For April and May, there is no better multiday backpacking trek in California.

If you go: Detour route

Storm damage closed a section of the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail near headquarters from Big Basin Redwoods State Park. A detour is available: From headquarters at the amphitheater, connect with the short trail along Opal Creek. Turn right and walk a short distance to a bridge, cross over the creek and walk upstream for a minute to the Sunset Trail. Turn left on the Sunset Trail and hike through forest, cross Middle Ridge Fire Road and down a short distance to the Sunset Connector Trail. Turn left. This trail descends past Kelly Creek and you then reconnect with the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail.

Tom Stienstra is The Chronicle’s outdoor writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom Facebook: www.facebook.com/tomstienstraoutdoors