My De Anza College class carpooled from the Saratoga Library parking lot to the Ramada Group Day Use Area in Portola Redwoods State Park. Just before reaching our starting point we stopped at the park headquarters to pay the entrance fee. We started our hike by taking the Old Tree Trail to view one of the biggest and oldest redwoods in the park. We paused to examine one of many banana slugs we encountered due to the rain last Thursday night. After returning to the Ramada Day Use Area we began our loop hike by heading south on
We then headed west on the Old Haul Road, which was the route of a narrow-gauge railroad that transported redwood logs to the many sawmills in the area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We then turned right onto the Bridge Trail, which heads north toward Pescadero Creek. Along the way we encountered a newt that was crossing the road. Before reaching Pescadero Creek we walked a few hundred feet up the Snag Trail to see a giant dead redwood with unusual black & white spiral stripes. We then continued to our lunch stop along Pescadero Creek.
After lunch we headed north on the Bridge Trail and then right (east) on the Pomponio Trail, which returned us to Portola State Park and our cars.
TO GET THERE... From Skyline Boulevard take Alpine Road west and then turn south on Portola State Park Road.
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