Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Hike Review
Cassie and I hiked the Redwood Loop Trail, Dool Trail, Middle Ridge Road, then back down Middle Ridge Road, and lastly to Sunset Trail, which poured us out at the parking lot.
The hike was mostly unshaded, making it unbearable, as it was high-80s when we started the hike and about 100 degrees (!!!) when we finished.
97% of the park was burned in the CZU fire in 2020. I expected fully burnt trees and ash—similar to what I saw when I hiked the east side of Lassen National Park last year—but instead, I saw a forest on its way to recovery. The tall redwoods had survived and sprouted new branches; new small trees were densely packed and thriving; flowers were blooming everywhere.
The visitor center was a small one made from a shipping container. It had a map and a ranger to help people understand the reopened parts of the park.
The park wasn’t close to being fully open. The popular trail to the waterfalls was closed, as was the trail that led to Buzzards Roost.
There were portable toilets in the parking lot.
Parking was $2 as I had a reservation and a Golden Poppy pass. Without a reservation it would have cost $10; without the Golden Poppy pass, $8.
If one were to take the free bus from Saddle Mountain parking area, it would have been free.
The trails were generously wide single-track trails where Cassie and I hiked side-by-side.
The trails were nice and hard-packed, with small stretches that turned into soft sand.
The trails meandered through a burn-recovering forest, with a color pallet of green, black, and brown. It was full of life and the desolation that usually comes with burned forests was not felt here, at least by me.
What I Learned
It was good to see so much life—green leaves dominated the forest. We even saw baby quails waddling along after their parents.
Gaia GPS had a place marked “Ocean View Summit,” which is where we hiked to. The view was not worth the heat-exhaustion-inducing walk along Middle Ridge Road. If I were to do it again, I would just enjoy the forest and loop back on Creeping Forest Trail.
The hike itself wasn’t too difficult, but the high heat made it difficult, with my heart rate jumping up to 140 bpm on a trail that gained less than 400 ft per mile. I kept an eye on my heart rate to see if I could use it to predict a possible case of heat exhaustion (my body doesn’t sweat, so it cannot remove heat well). It was interesting to see that while my heart was jumping like crazy due to my body’s inability to remove heat, Cassie’s heart rate stayed around 80 bpm. I’ve never been so jealous of someone’s ability to sweat.
What Happened?
4.8 miles, 2 hrs 23 mins, 807 ft of ascent
Cassie was still feeling under the weather, so instead of something difficult, we decided to go on a short hike—something to the tune of 5-6 miles. I pitched many trails to her with her being excited by most of them, but then I remembered how Big Basin Redwoods State Park had reopened last year and it’d be great to see how it was recovering.
We knew that the day would be hot, so we made it our plan to get up and go to the park as soon as we woke up. Unfortunately, the heatwave in California made it difficult to go to sleep the night before, so we ended up waking up much later than usual. We got to the park at 10:30 AM and started the hike as soon as we applied our sunblock.
The hike started easy, with a stroll on the Redwood Loop Trail. After that, it was a hot, hot hike where my heart rate jumped up and I felt like I was hiking up Mount Everest. We made it to the lookout point, took a picture, and headed back down as I was just too hot to stay on this trail.
There was one point where I asked Cassie to touch the bottom of her shoe while we were on Middle Ridge Road to see how hot the ground we were hiking on, and she was surprised at how hot it was. But once we dropped off the ridge to Sunset Trail, I felt 50% better and the rest of the hike went much better. We also found the sunset trail to have more plants and shade versus the other trails, which helped a ton.
Back at the car, we started back immediately as we wanted the AC to cool us down. It worked wonders—I felt like a cooked noodle being submerged in cold water—I was no longer cooking! We talked about childhood trauma on the drive back, so our conversation wasn’t as jovial as it was on the trail. I still appreciated it as it was crystal clear how much trust we have and how we could be there for each other.