Samuel P.Taylor State Park

June 8-10, 2007

Description:
Samuel P. Taylor State Park is located just north of San Francisco in the steep rolling hills of central Marin County. It is just seven miles east of spectacular Point Reyes National Seashore. It is also close to Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin headlands and Muir Woods National Monument. (excerpt from Samuel P. Taylor State Park brochure)

Directions:
From Sacramento, take I-80 West towards San Francisco. Just before Vallejo, take Hwy 37 West to Hwy 101 in Novato. Take Hwy 101 South to Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Exit at Sir Francis Drake Blvd. and head west several miles to the park entrance (note: the sign will say Camp Taylor, it's former name from the 1880s.)

Activities:
Bike Trails, Camping, Picnicking, Hiking, Equestrian Trails and Horse Camp

Experience:
We chose Samuel Taylor Park because of its proximity to Sacramento (less than two hours away), its probability of cool weather since it's near the coast (we had just endured our first 100 degree days of summer in Sacramento), and the fact that it had paved bike trails. The latter was the most important to us. My five-year-old son Sam recently learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels. I knew that if we were to keep him happy on this trip, he had to be able to bike ride. Samuel Taylor Park did not disappoint.

Friday, June 8, 2007: We arrived in the afternoon (2:00 pm check-in time) to our campsite in the Creekside Campground. Sites in the Creekside Campground are tent-only sites (Small trailers can reserve sites in the Orchard Hill Campground, but electricity, water and sewage hookups are not available.) Our site was camp 23. I was a bit late in planning our camping trips this year, so I had slim pickings for a weekend trip. The only spot left was site 23. Our site was across the street from Papermill Creek and surrounded by four other campsites. These campsites were a bit secluded among the redwoods. Ours seemed to be in the middle of the parking lot. Two parking spots for a different campsite were right outside our tent, and there was no other place to set up the tent. We felt on display. Our spot also got a lot of sunlight during the day, but luckily the nice bay area weather kept us cool. Note: Sir Francis Drake Blvd goes through the middle of the State Park and is about 200 yards away from the campgrounds. Traffic noise is highly audible at all times.

Saturday, June 9, 2007: You might think we didn't have a great time, but not counting Yosemite, this was the best camping trip we've had. In the morning, we rode our bikes along the Cross Marin Trail. This is an out-and-back, paved bike trail that extends from near the park entrance west to the town of Tocaloma (although we stopped at the Tocaloma bridge; the rest of the trail becomes a bike route along Sir Francis Drake Blvd). This was a great bike trail for kids. There are no cars, it was level, paved and a perfect length for my 5-year-old. The scenery was pretty and included Papermill Creek where the endangered Coho salmon spawn in the winter (there are even cute wooden, red salmon placards on the bridges along the trail). What amazed me was we completed the trail within an hour-and a half, including a break for lunch. So we got back to camp and wondered what we were going to do the rest of the day.

We decided to ride the rest of the Cross Marin Trail. The Cross Marin Trail also heads east of the park entrance; this time, on a multi-use dirt and gravel trail. We figured we would try a portion of the trail to see where it led and to see if Sam could handle riding on gravel. The first portion of the trail east was a little more populated with hikers and camp visitors because it was close to the park entrance. But once we crossed the bridge at the Irving Group Picnic Area, we only encountered a handful of hikers. We surprised ourselves by riding the entire multi-use trail to the end at Inkwells Bridge, then crossed Sir Francis Drake Blvd. (by walking the bikes) and continued on a dirt road to Peter's Dam on Kent Lake. We thought we would be level with the top of the dam but in fact, we were below the spillways. It looked like you could ride up a dirt road to the top of the dam, but it was long and very steep. (Once home we found out that our entire trip east and west on the Cross Marin Trail was about 10 miles. Our son was a trooper.)

That evening we attended the Campfire Program presented by the Parks system that included a slideshow about the history of the park and a short campfire sing-a-long. I recommend attending these presentations because it's something to do in the evening (when scheduled), it shows your appreciation of the park to the rangers, and you always learn something about the park that was not highlighted in the park brochure.

Sunday, June 10,2007: We broke down our campsite (Noon checkout time) and headed to the parking area at the Redwood Grove Picnic Area to take in some hiking. There are many hiking trails at the park. North Creek, South Creek, Ox and Pioneer Tree Trails are short hikes quite close to the campgrounds. Devil's Gulch Trail, Stairstep Falls Trail, and Bill's Trail that leads to Barnabe Peak are located in the foothills across Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Devils' Gulch looks like a short, level hike but the other two hikes are much longer with larger elevations gains (400'-800').

We decided to try the Pioneer Tree Trail, a short 2.2-mile hike. The trailhead starts at the eastern portion of the Cross Marin Trail. It's a lush trail through a redwood forest filled with ferns (as well as lots of Poison Oak). There was about a 200' elevation gain on the trail and it is not stroller or wheelchair accessible. About two-thirds of the way along the trail, we came across the trail's namesake, the Pioneer Tree. This is thought to be the oldest Redwood in the park, since most of the current redwoods are second growth trees. It's a nice place to rest and take in the beauty of the trees. We continued on and soon came to the end of the trail near the pedestrian bridge at Irving Grove Picnic Area. We walked another 1/2 mile along the Cross Marin Trail back to our car at Redwood Grove.

After a brief lunch at the picnic area near the park entrance, we got back in the car and headed home to hot, hot Sacramento. We vowed this would be a park to return to.

Prepackaged Backpacker Food Review:
Mountain House Sweet and Sour Pork with Rice (4 out of 5 stars). Serves 2

These freeze-dried backpacker foods are packaged in a resealable foil pouch. The only cooking requirements are boiling water added to the package. After about ten minutes of "cooking", the meal is ready to eat out of the pouch. The consistency was fairly good with the chicken pieces tending to be a bit small and chewy at times (longer cooking time could help). The mix did have a nice sweet and sour flavor and the rice cooked well. Pair it with a pre-bagged salad mix like Fresh Express Pacifica! Veggie Supreme (includes lettuce-veggie mix, poppy-seed salad dressing, soynuts and sunflower seeds), and you have a well-balanced dinner.