Henry Cowell redwoods state park, Felton CA. 08/30/2015

Summary

Location: Henry Cowell redwoods state park, Felton California
Trail: Redwood grove loop trail / River trail / Big rock hole trail / Buckeye trail and then the pipeline fire road back.
Date & Time: 08/30/2015 01:00 PM
Distance: 9 miles
Duration: 3 hours 45 minutes
Difficulty (1-5): 2, Easy hike in shade under the amazing redwood trees
Official web page: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=546

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Story

We have been hiking in this nice park many times but this time we took a new trail (Big rock hole trail and the Buckeye trail) that we have not tried before. Those were amazing and fun, let me get back to that later.

This park is great to hike in when its warm summer days because almost the entire park with some minor differences goes though thick redwood forests that provides excellent shade and quietness. We started the hike by the park office. Here you can find a lot of parking and the entrance fee is 10 dollar per car.

Park entrance

We started our hike at the Redwood grove loop trail that is a very easy accessible loop trail through redwoods, they have a lot of information here that will learn you about this amazing forest. Some cool things here are the "Giant tree" that measure 270 feet high, almost as high as a 25 story high building. Another cool tree is the "Fremont tree" that is named that because of John Fremont spent a night inside this tree in 1846. This tree is so big inside! The record today is that 81 people fit inside this tree at the same time. You can see it here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODbUqIrDnTA

Redwood grove loop trail

"The giant" 270 feet high!

The fremont tree, were John Fremont spent a night 1846

After half of the loop trail we exited out from this easy well maintained trail out to the river trail. This part is flat and easy and takes you in parallel with the San lorenzo rivers for a while before the trail turns into the forest and slowly starts to climb upwards on a very nice and beautiful trail. The river is shallow and calm that makes it excellent for young kids that wants to play in the sand or in the water. 

The San Larenzo river

A small waterfall

My daughter at the waterfall

When getting into the forest it becomes so silent and quiet. The big trees are so beautiful and really shut off all the outside world for a while.

The trail turns into the forest and slowly starts to head up

This forest is magical

After the river trail is finished we decided to try the big rock hole trail that we haven't tried before. Here you notice that not so many people hikes because the trail gets much more narrow and the vegetation gets very close and on some parts covers the trail.

I was a bit scared of poison oak but i couldn't see any so either there was not any close to the trail or we were just very lucky. This part of the trail is about a mile and takes you through nice forest and in the end the trail descends a lot to take you back down to the river again.

This is where the fun begins! Now you have to cross the river and there is no bridge. However there is some rocks so if the water level is low and you have some trekking poles you can cross easy without getting wet.

I love when they put up signs like this

The river after ending the Big rock hole trail.

Wife and daughter crossing the river

After this there is about another half mile of flat trail with heavy vegetation that cover parts of the trail. Then it is time to cross the river again... This time there is no rocks to climb on and the river is a bit wider so be prepared to get wet. Unfortunately we had so much fun so i forgot to take photos here. But if the water is warm this is really funny and nice.

When you have crossed the river the second time it is very difficult to find the trail again, but just follow the river to the right for maybe a hundred feet and you will find a trail sign.

Now it is time to climb up again from the creek and the trail gets very steep taking yuo through some switchbacks for about a half mile.

Once up it was pretty late so we decided to just take the pipeline fire road back to the park office and parking. This section was 2,5 miles and all is on a nice paved road without any traffic.

In the middle of the road they have a nice Vista point were you can see Santa Cruz and the pacific.

Steep switchbacks up from the river

More switchbacks

Vista point with a view over Santa cruz and the pacific

Pipeline fire road

We had a wonderful day and will definitely spend many more days in this park, even though my wife and daughter doesn't like to find creatures like this on the trails... :)

Small snake on the trail

Our hike