Just beyond these two tiny towns (I can never tell them apart), you descend into the gloomy, forested canyon of Lagunitas Creek, over which you shortly pass on a short highway bridge. On through the redwood forest you drive for a couple of miles, entering Samuel P. Taylor State Park. Watch for the Irving Group Picnic Area on your right; you'll be crossing the highway here on your walk, via the bridge under which you pass. About a mile from the boundary sign you find the entrance to the main picnic and camping area on your left. Drop down to the ranger station, pay your five dollar parking fee, then continue on past the main picnic ground, cross the bridge on its other side, and turn left to the Redwood Grove Picnic Area (for groups, by reservation). We parked there; if this area is in heavy use (as is common in the summertime and fall) you may have to park back at the main picnic area and walk over here or find another trail.
You can also drive a couple of miles on down the road and park across from the entrance to the Devil's Gulch Trail, and then follow that trail up to the top of the peak; this will not affect you much if you are only interested in making a round trip on the mountain's southwestern slope, but if its southeastern ridge interests you, parking here will save you five bucks but add two or three miles to your hike.
We started east along the trail that parallels the creek that seems to be variously known as "Lagunitas" and "Papermill". There's an immediate junction with the Pioneer Tree Trail that climbs up Wildcat Creek canyon to your right; keep on straight ahead. The trail is broad and relatively straight, running along a few yards above the banks of the creek, which on the day we were there was deep, wide, and brawling along toward the oceans -- no surprise, given the week of storms we had just had.
In about a mile the trail turns slightly to the left and crosses both creek and highway on an old bridge where you can see the remnants of what seems to have been a yellow line -- indicating that this might have been the old route of the highway, though the trail is also referred to elsewhere as an "old railway grade". You pass above the Irving picnic area and continue on, more or less horizontally, for another mile. Several beautiful little streams come down the hill from the left, crossing under the trail in culverts; if you make your way a few yards up a made path in one tiny dell, you'll see a full-fledged waterfall, most likely dry in summer, fall and drought.
Ultimately you'll come to a point where the Ridge Trail angles off to the left. It looks fairly steep, and indeed it is; you'll climb about six hundred feet in the first half mile, making your way up to the ridge crest. The first part of this climb is through the same dense forest you've been following through the canyon. Watch for circles of redwoods down in the side canyons you cross, and also for one interesting fallen redwood from which new trees are sprouting en masse, just to your right. Before too long, though (if you are out of shape it might seem like half an hour or so), the redwoods will gradually disappear and the forest will open out into a more open area, where the common conifer is the Douglas fir and where you'll find a lot of what appears to be broom along the trail.
The trail, which is actually a fire road, makes one sharp turn to the left as it approaches the crest of the ridge. After another couple of hundred feet of climbing, some of it under trees, most in the open, you'll come out atop the ridge and cross it; this fire road follows the northeast side, for the most part, from here on to the top.
The guide books generally recommend taking the actual Ridge Trail from this point on; the Trail differs from the fire road in being narrower, more winding, and following the southwest side of the ridge a bit below the crest. I can't verify this information because we didn't find the entrance to the trail (the guide books seem to bring you down, rather than up, this ridge, though I think a more recent edition of Whitnah's book reverses the direction of the circuit, to go the same way we did). The Ridge Trail is probably nicer in the springtime, when those grassy southwest slopes are a riot of wildflowers; but in late February, I would guess that all it had to offer was some nice views across the Lagunitas Creek canyon to the forested ridge on the other side; and the views from the fire road up the San Geronimo Valley were certainly just as attractive, especially -- as you climb higher -- with the East Bay Hills coming in sight over beyond the Bay.
One thing to watch for behind you: not long after you turn out onto the ridge, looking back to the hills south of Lagunitas Creek you'll notice a cleared area where the slopes appear to have been terraced. A little higher up you'll find that this is the west side of a reservoir, near the dam and spillway. The reservoir is Kent Lake, and the spillway -- out of which a white waterfall was pouring when we saw it -- is the source of Lagunitas Creek.
There are also some nice little shady areas along the northeast side of the ridge; they provide welcome respite as you work your way ever upwards, rounding knolls and coming out into little cols in between. Ahead, the lookout tower atop Barnabe Peak comes into sight. Most days, this will be sunlit; we arrived at this part of the walk in a shower -- not of water but of snow pellets!! The last pull up to the lookout tower is fairly easy.
According to the map, Barnabe Peak itself is just a bit north of the lookout tower, and inside the State Park; but it turns out that the flat area in question is fenced off, and the only open entryway is plastered with signs warning that the area is watched and patrolled, that you are not allowed to trespass for any reason, that Big Brother Is Watching, and that if you put so much as an unclipped toenail across this line you will be struck dead on the spot. Obviously, the landowners are legitimately attempting to protect themselves against an invasion of two or three million overenthusiastic but careless city-dwellers who will no doubt swarm up the 1300 feet from the bottom of Lagunitas Creek canyon and overrun them.
In any case, don't feel too bad. If you walk around the lookout tower you'll find an outcropping of rock that, if you stand on it, will let you look over the top of what you at first thought was the summit. When we were there, there was also what passed for a wooden bench -- if you were very careful and had good balance -- where you could sit and eat lunch. We vacated it just in time for a couple and their dog to occupy it and eat their lunch.
The view from the top is great. Mt. Tamalpais is in view to the southeast -- it is invisible from further down in the canyon -- and there are also great views to east and west, but the northwest is the really attractive direction, where Tomales Bay lies, a long smooth strip of water like some great estuary separating the mainland shore from the northern end of Pt. Reyes National Seashore. I also enjoyed being able to look down on Black Mountain -- according to Whitnah West Marinites also refer to it as Elephant Back, for obvious reasons, but I have always called it "Blencathra" after a nearly identical mountain in the northern fells of Cumbria (I reserve the name "Elephant Back" for the rounded hump between Carson Pass and Round Top in the Sierra).
You can return the same way, but we decided to follow the Barnabe Trail. This turns off to the west just below the lookout -- it is another fire road, as far as I can tell -- and drops steeply downward, primarily over open slopes, though occasionally it passes through a small copse of oaks and California laurels. Almost two miles pass very quickly when you're going down a steep hill. Soon some sort of building comes into view below you, and ahead, closer, is a little white square fence on a flat space: this is Samuel P. Taylor's grave. Shortly after these things come into sight, a fire road turns off to the left and leads half a mile or so down to the Madrone Group Picnic Area.
Your best bet here is to follow the driveway down to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and then follow the road east for a ways until you reach the main picnic and campground to your right. You can also drop straight down through the Madrone picnic area itself and come out at the highway directly opposite the main area, thus saving yourself five or ten minutes of walking, but this has three major disadvantages: (1) if the leaves on the ground below the picnic area are wet, they are very slippery; (2) when you reach the highway, you will be ten or fifteen feet vertically above it -- there are places that you can run down the slope without falling (you can't walk down!), but thanks to inertia you will come to a stop about halfway out into the westbound lane of the boulevard and stand a slim to fair chance of becoming roadkill; and (3) I suspect that the park authorities frown on this practice.
When you get back into the main area, return to your car, perhaps stopping at any of several available rest rooms in the area.
Don Harlow
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The adjoining map is excerpted from "Samuel P. Taylor State Park", a pamphlet © copyright 1994 by the California Department of Parks & Recreation. The pamphlet is available from the rangers at Samuel P. Taylor State Park. |
Don Harlow <donh@netcom.com>