Big Basin State Park

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Saturday I went hiking in Big Basin California State Park with a group from work. Big Basin is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains of the Coastal Range.

The hike takes you though numerous Coast Redwood groves (Sequoia Sempervirens) that grow in a narrow band from just south of Monterey to just north of the Oregon Border and about 50 miles wide and only to 3000 ft elevation. It is easy to hike "above" of them. Big Basin SP is toward the southern end of the range they grow in.
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We went on the 11 mile Waterfall Loop comprised of a few trail sections. Starting with the Sunset Trail
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4.3 miles later you take the Berry Cree Falls Trail for 1.1 miles
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At 5.4 miles you are halfway through the hike and you've been hiking for 3 hours. You are greeted by the first of the falls The water and rocks are cool and refreshing.
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These Stairs are on a cliff and rather steep. The tips of ferns on the left side hang in the air 50 ft above the creek.
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Many large roots cross the trails, especially along the creek.
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Berry Creek Falls is the largest of the falls. The stairs in the previous photo are at the top/right of these falls.
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At the base of the falls is a viewing deck with a large hollow redwood behind it.

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From there you pick up Skyline trail for 5.5 miles and 3 hrs later you are back at the ranger station.
 
I'd love to check out that hollow tree and the waterfall. I suppose you may skip the Muir Woods when you eventually prowl the coast up here.
 
Wow I did not know California had so many Redwood parks..... I thought they were all in northern Cali? I just looked up Big Basin and I see it's not so.

I went to Jedediah Redwoods and Trees of Mystery last year with my Daughter. It was great fun..... We went to Crater Lake in Oregon on the way to the Redwoods.

Very pretty and awe inspiring. I had been to Crater lake the year before I went with my Daughter and there was way less snow. The winter of 07-08 just piled on the snow up there.
 
Northern California starts north of the Golden Gate in Marin County. There you can find sequoias in the Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Muir Woods National Monument and all over the Point Reyes Peninsula. Big Basin State Park is the largest redwood forest in Central California. There are of course redwoods in Yosemite. The redwoods grow along the coast all the way into Oregon. You haven't really seen a tree, until you've seen one with a trunk that has a diameter of 25 feet.
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PS: The bigger the tree, the tinier its nuts.
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Quote:
Wow I did not know California had so many Redwood parks..... I thought they were all in northern Cali? I just looked up Big Basin and I see it's not so.


The Coast Redwoods start in Big Sur Which is toward the northern end of central California. Coast Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth at over 370' tall with a 25' diameter but they are not the most massive. Factoid: These trees are 2.5x taller than the Statue of Liberty!

The Giant Sequoia grow 100 miles east of the Coast Redwoods in the southern Sierra Nevada from Yosemite to the Piute range. Looking on a map they grow in the mountains east of Merced to east of Bakersfield. General Sherman is the most massive of all trees in in the world at 36.5' diameter and 275' tall. Sequoia National Park, King's Canyon, Mineral King, Giant Grove are all outstanding places to visit the "big trees" without the tourist hassles/crowds of Yosemite. The biggest of the big are in Giant Grove.
 
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Northern California starts north of the Golden Gate in Marin County. There you can find sequoias in the Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Muir Woods National Monument and all over the Point Reyes Peninsula. Big Basin State Park is the largest redwood forest in Central California. There are of course redwoods in Yosemite. The redwoods grow along the coast all the way into Oregon. You haven't really seen a tree, until you've seen one with a trunk that has a diameter of 25 feet.
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PS: The bigger the tree, the tinier its nuts.
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If you are on the coast, Big Sur and anything north of there is Northern California, geographically and culturally.

Inland it's not so easy to tell.

This is a good indicator
Quote:
If you wear Birkenstocks you're in Northern California. If you wear flip-flops you're in Southern California.
 
Originally Posted By: XS650
If you are on the coast, Big Sur and anything north of there is Northern California, geographically and culturally.


Where do you place Central California?

[quote[Inland it's not so easy to tell.[/quote]
True that.

Quote:
This is a good indicator
Quote:
If you wear Birkenstocks you're in Northern California. If you wear flip-flops you're in Southern California.

I wear neither...
 
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: XS650
If you are on the coast, Big Sur and anything north of there is Northern California, geographically and culturally.


Where do you place Central California?



That's where the people that don't admit to being in Northern or Southern California live.
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The common split is Northern and Southern, if you want to get a fine as including Central as an area, then you need to start considering costal and inland etc.

Central America is in North America so I'm claiming Central California as part of Northern California.
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It's too nice an area to be part of Southern California
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Sounds like a nice trail. Some good waterfall shots too.

Culturally and meteorologically, I'd say that anything south of Pt. Conception is "so cal". Around here the "central coast" seems to run north from Pt. Conception to Big Sur-ish area. None of it makes any sense geographically - just like those idiots with "nor cal" and "so cal" stickers on their lifted trucks.
Oh, and I consider anything south of Ventura to be LA
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I'm in agreement with surfstar. I say SB to SF is central coast, geographically and culturally. Inland anything in the San Joaquin/Central Valley is Central Calif. in "culture" but N. Calif starts above Sacto.
 
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