Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail
Activities 30-34 mile backpacking trip (averaging 10 miles per day of hiking between sites) Reservations Cost was $106 for 3 nights and 2 camp sites at each of the 3 trail camps. We reserved 2 campsites at each of the 3 locations for $15 and there was an $8 processing fee for each campsite Each campsite holds up to 8 people and each campsite reservation comes with 1 overnight parking permit. For more information see: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26658 For the Santa Cruz Big Basin site. Currently this requires calling: (831) 338-8861 You cannot reserve the trail camps with www.reservecalifornia.com you have to call. The Park will e-mail you the Backcountry Permit and Parking pass to print out. Competition for reservations is highest during the weekend, we did this trip during the Summer during the weekday on Monday - Thursday and there were not that many people at Big Basin Redwoods. Campsites First Trail campsite was: Waterman Gap -> no bear boxes, has water and garbage, pit toilets Second Trail Campsite was: Jay Camp -> has bear boxes, water and garbage and showers (you need quarters 75 cents for a 2 minute shower with a quarter for each additional minute), flush toilets This site is at Park HQ so there is a general store here to restock if you desire. It is potentially harder to get 2 campsites together as there are more people at the Park HQ sites. Mosquitos were more of a problem at Jay Camp than at the other campsites. Third Trail Campsite was: Twin Redwoods -> Pit Toilets, Bear boxes in some sites but not all sites, no water, you need to filter from the stream, there is garbage but not serviced regularly (An alternate choice to Twin Redwoods was Sunset Trail camp which is near Berry Creek falls though there is no water at this site either and it's potentially a climb to get to) Last Day is Twin Redwoods to Waddell Beach (only 2.5 miles to the beach). Opinions differed as to whether it would have been better to cut the trip by 1 day and just hiked all the way from Jay Camp to Waddell beach and cut the trip by 1 day. Other scouts liked breaking at Twin Redwood and having more beach time on the last day Maps Starting Point: Castle Rock State Park, 155000 Skyline Blvd, Los Gatos, CA 95033 Ending Point: Waddell Beach CA-1, Davenport, CA. When returning, there's no close In-n-Out so you'll have to pick some other fast food on the return trip back, we picked Burger King at Cabrillo highway 35 minutes from Waddell Beach at the intersection of CA Highway 1 and CA Highway 92.
Information website: https://sempervirens.org/protect/redwood-forests/skyline-to-the-sea-trail/
Map Link (beta): https://www.google.com/maps?q=37.1755175,-122.2344553
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