Big Basin Redwoods State Park

August 5-7, 2007

Description
Big Basin is California's oldest State Park, established in 1902. Home to the largest continuous stand of Ancient Coast Redwoods south of San Francisco, the park consists of Old Growth and recovering Redwood Forest, with mixed conifer, oaks, chaparral, and riparian habitats. Elevations in the park vary from sea level to over 2,000 feet. The climate ranges from foggy and damp near the ocean to sunny, warm ridge tops. (excerpt from the State Parks website).

Location
Big Basin is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains about 23 miles northwest of the city of Santa Cruz. Hwy236 runs through the park and is accessible from Hwy 9.

Activities
Hiking, Camping, Backpacking, Jr. Ranger and Campfire Programs during the summer, Picnicking

Review

If you'd like a Yosemite experience in a little package, this is the State Park for you. A stay at Big Basin Redwoods State Park during the summer should be at least a 3-5 night stay, since there are so many things to do. The park offers more than 80 miles of hiking including the Skyline to the Sea Trail popular with backpackers as well as some pleasant camping.

When you arrive at Big Basin, you actually pass many of the campgrounds before arriving at the Park Headquarters. The HQ looks like a mini-lodge and houses the Campground Check-in and a Visitor Center where you can purchase a State Park Map ($3.00) and Redwood Trail Map ($0.25). The State Park Map is a must for anyone interested in hiking at Big Basin.

The park also has a mini-mart, a gift shop, Nature Lodge that contains a small museum, and a campfire center. Big Basin has the best campfire program we've ever attended. During the summer, campfire programs are scheduled several times a week, unlike the one Saturday night program at most parks. Each program begins with the roasting of marshmallows, followed by campfire songs to get the crowd going. The program for the night changes during the week and focuses on a different aspect of the park. The two nights we attended, we learned about the Marbled Murrelet as well as Migrating Species through little plays and slide show programs. Thank you to Interpretive Specialist Sheila for an excellent campfire experience.

Along with its nighttime campfire program, Big Basin offers a daytime Jr. Ranger program for 7-12 year olds as well as a nature program for 3-6 year olds and their parents. Programs are scheduled several times a week during summer and focus on different wildlife and geological aspects of the park. Big Basin is also a big promoter of the California State Park Litter Getter program. This program encourages children to pick up litter around the park. Kids are given a green plastic bag and plastic glove to pick up trash. Once the bag is full, kids may trade it in at a Camp Host or the Ranger Station in exchange for a special State Park sticker. Collect six bags of trash and you receive six different stickers along with a special park gift (i.e. pencil).

Camping
The only downside to this park is the camping reservation system. Unlike most State Parks, Big Basin does not allow you to reserve a specific campsite. You are able to reserve the type of spot (i.e. walk-in, tent-only, or standard for trailers/RVs) but not the exact location. Your campsite is assigned the day your arrive, so plan to arrive early to get the best picks (Check-in is 2:00pm; Check-out is 12:00pm). Reservations can be made through www.reserveamerica.com

Our campsite #115 was a bit disappointing. It was a tent-only site in the Blooms Creek Campground. Sites 113, 114 and 115 felt like one long continuous campsite. If it weren't for the fact that we had nice neighbors, it could have felt intrusive. Plus our campsite was not level. We had to find a location for our small 3-person tent towards the back of our campground that I'm sure the rangers would have told us was not technically on our site. Plus we still tended to slide around at night due to its incline. But luckily we got over the deficiencies of our campsite and enjoyed our stay immensely.

There are four family campgrounds and two group campgrounds located in the park. All campsites (walk-in, tent-only, RV/standard and tent cabins) have a fire ring, picnic table and wooden storage unit and handicapped sites are available. A dumpstation is located in the Huckleberry Campground.

Mosquitoes were very prevalent in the campground, so bring plenty of repellent.

Blooms Creek Campground is the closest non-group campground to park headquarters. This campground contains 54 campsites with tent-only and a handful of RV/standard sites. Water is available in many spots throughout the campground as well as four restrooms with multiple stalls. Restrooms have flush toilets and sinks but no soap or towels. There are also no mirrors in a few of the restrooms. Hot showers are available for $0.25 for 2 minutes.

Note: For more private bathrooms and showers, visit Jay Camp. These restrooms have individual rooms and showers for the handicapped. They were not visited often because the gate to Jay Camp was locked (not sure how a disabled person would be able access this bathroom facility).

Sempervirens Campground is located just a short walk east of Blooms Creek Campground and is
divided in two areas by Hwy 236. The campground contains 31 campsites with a mix of tent-only and RV/standard sites. Hot showers and handicapped accessible bathrooms are available.

Huckleberry Campground is a campground that answers the call for a variety of campers with its 8 walk-in campsites, 35 tent cabins, and 22 RV/standard sites. Walk-in campsites are sites where you must carry your supplies at least a 1/4 mile from a parking lot. RV/standard sites are supposed to accommodate a trailer as well as a tent, but these sites were a bit small. Although there is space for a 27ft trailer, there did not seem to be a lot of room for extra tents at many of the sites.

Tent cabins are available for those who do not wish to "rough it" in a tent. These cabins are wood buildings with a fabric roof and contain two platform beds, a wood stove and a table inside (A platform bed is a sheet of wood elevated off the ground with a 4-5inch thick sleeping bad on top.). A fire ring and picnic table are located just outside the cabin These cabins are available for reservation through a third-party operator by calling 1-800-874-TENT.

The Huckleberry campground also has hot showers and restrooms with flush toilets and sinks. Water is also available throughout the campground.

Wastahi Walk-in Campground is a walk-in campground with 27 campsites. Campsites are a short walk from a main parking lot meaning you must walk all of your supplies to your campsite. The campsites in this campground seemed a little close together than other walk-ins we've seen. Most seemed very close to the parking lot with only a few sites that were remote.

This campground still has the same amenities of other campgrounds with flush toilets, sinks and hot showers.

Sky Meadow Group Campground is a walk-in group campground with two campgrounds accommodating 40 people each. Sky Meadow is the campground furthest from the Park HQ as well as being very remote from everything else. Water is available but no hot water. There are two restrooms with only a single pit toilet in each and no sinks (there also appeared to be little light available in what I would really call an outhouse). Considering a total of 80 people could be in this campground at one time, you need to know your party well.

Sequoia Group Campground is the only campground we did not visit. This is a group campground that can accommodate 50 people at each of two sites. Sequoia is the more modernized of the two group camps in that it has flush toilets, sinks with hot water and hot showers. This campground is the closest of all campgrounds to Park HQ

Hiking
Hiking is the activity of choice in Big Basin with its 80 miles of hiking trails. There are trails available for every level of fitness. A State Park Map ($3.00) available from the Visitor Center is a must if you intend to hike here. This park map has all of the trails listed as well as trail mileage listing with approximate length of time to finish each hike.

Redwood Trail is the one trail that all visitors to the park should visit. It is located next to the campfire center and across the street from the Park Headquarters. The Redwood Trail is a self-guided nature trail explaining traits of a Redwood Forest. A trail guide is available at Park Headquarters or at the trailhead for $0.25. There are 11 stops along the trail including the Mother of the Forest and Father of the Forest; redwood trees that are believed to be the tallest and oldest of the trees in Big Basin.

The Redwood Trail is an easy 1/2 mile trail that will take approximately 30-45 minutes to finish even with young children. This trail is a great starter trail before accomplishing many of the other trails in Big Basin.

Sequoia and Shadowbrook Trails both lead to Sempervirens Falls, a small 17 ft. waterfall. The Sequoia and Shadowbrook Trails are fairly short trails (about 2-4 miles one way) compared to a lot of the others available at Big Basin. This is a loop that you can accomplish in 2-4hours depending on your fitness level or about 4 hours if you have small kids. These are trails with some inclines but no more than a 200' elevation gain.

The Sequoia Trail begins at Park Headquarters and another trailhead is available near Jay Camp. Most of the trail follows alongside the road to Wastahi, Huckleberry and Sky Meadow campgrounds. So if you're not a hiker, you may drive to the Sempervirens Fall (there is a small 2-3 car parking spot not to far past the Falls and near Slippery Rock, another feature along the trail).

Sequoia Trail also passes the Wastahi Campground, so this makes a great stop for a restroom break.

The Shadowbrook Trail begins on the other side of the road from the Sequoia Trail near Slippery Rock. This Trail goes a little further into the interior of the forest and passes Sky Meadow and Huckleberry Campgrounds. It eventually ends near the Sempervirens Campground.

Keep an eye out for banana slugs on the trail. If you haven't seen a banana slug, it's a sight to see. When we were hiking, I was looking for trash to pick up for the Litter Getter program (you would be surprised how many people throw their trash on the ground while hiking), and I thought I spotted a banana peel. As I got closer, I realized it was a banana slug. The kids will love watching these slow-moving creatures.

Berry Creek Falls Hike is an out and back hike along the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail (popular with backpackers). It is a 10-mile hike that is approximately 5 hours long. But we hear the Falls are worth it. Unfortunately, this was not a hike we could take since we have a young child. It's just too long for a 5-year-old and the hike is listed as strenuous on the Big Basin website.

Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is a backpackers dream. This trail begins in Castle Rock State Park and continues for 38 miles through Big Basin to Waddell Creek Beach at the Pacific Ocean.

There are many other trails throughout Big Basin that are listed in the State Park Map. It is definitely a park to visit often if living close by or to camp for at least a week to get your fill.

Prepackaged Backpacker Food Review
Backpacker Pantry Kung Pao Chicken (4 out 5 stars) Serves 2
Between Backpacker Pantry and Mountain House, I think I prefer Backpacker Pantry products. The flavors of their entrees as well as the consistency are better. This time we tried the Kung Pao Chicken entree and it was very good. As always, it comes in a resealable foil pouch and only needs boiling water added. This entree had a small package of peanuts and a package of red pepper flakes that you could add to the entree. Be careful with the red pepper flakes, a little goes a long way in the spice department. Again, the chicken bits were small but well-cooked as was the rice. The flavor was consistent with Kung Pao chicken although the spice was a little too much for me.

Mountain House Mac & Cheese (3 out of 5 stars) Serves 2
For the last few camping trips, we have been trying to find a box of mac & cheese that was small and easy to cook because our son is always asking us to bring Mac & Cheese. All of the Mac & Cheese single serving cups out there are microwaveable only. So we had to turn to the backpacker freeze-dried products to get our son's Mac & Cheese. He was happy to have the Mountain House Mac & Cheese. Our son thought it was yummy. It definitely rivals Kraft when it comes to cheesiness. The macaroni was nice and big but unfortunately too chewy for me. I think maybe letting it "cook" a few minutes longer would help. Also it was very salty; it didn't make me feel good feeding him so much sodium. And still there was too much leftover mac & cheese. I guess the three of us could have easily eaten the Mac & Cheese as the only entree, but Mac & Cheese isn't really appealing to our adult palates. Can't anyone make a one serving portion that just needs boiling water (no milk or butter to lug around)?

Backpacker Pantry Mocha Mousse Pie (3 out of 5 stars) Serves 2
This was the first time we've tried a backpacker dessert. Of course, I didn't read the directions before buying them and assumed all you needed to do was boil water and use the pouch it came in like the entrees. I was wrong and it lost one star because of this ease of use issue. You need a bowl to mix it with the cold water. It's still easy to make, but it is one more bowl to clean. As far as taste was concerned, it wasn't bad. It's supposed to be a mousse but the texture was closer to a pudding. The pie crust is a crumb topping that you sprinkle onto the mousse. It's very good as long as you don't mix the topping into the mousse. You don't get the pie taste if it's mixed into it. I might actually buy this dessert again.

Backpacker Pantry Hot Apple Cobbler (2 out of 5 stars) Serves 2
Again, this dessert loses one star because of the ease of use issue mentioned above. This dessert takes two bowls to make, takes about 20 minutes to cook and needs to cook on your camp stove. One bowl is used to heat the apples and water. You boil the water with the apples and let it simmer for five minutes. In another bowl, you mix the cake mix with cold water. Then you put the cake on top of the reconstituted apples and then cook on low for 10 minutes. It actually had to cook for about 15 minutes for us and the cake mix still didn't look cooked. It also leaves your bowls and plates quite messy. We eat this in a well-stocked campsite and I didn't like cleaning everything. I can't imagine a backpacker wanting to go through all of this trouble in the backcountry.

As for flavor, it was okay. There was too much cake compared to the apples and there was not enough cinnamon flavor. I wouldn't buy this dessert again.