Saratoga Gap

We dropped our son off at school at 8:15 am this morning and by 8:45 am we had reached the trailhead for Saratoga Gap. The trailhead was a little ways past the junction of Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) on Big Basin Way (Highway 9). We hiked from Skyline Boulevard down about 2.7 miles down to the junction of the Table Mountain Trail and then continued for a few more miles to the Canyon Trail. Much of this part of the trail was a chapparal microclimate with plenty of manzanita scrub and followed along a ridge line with views of the opposite ridge before descending into the valley.

From there we turned left onto the Grizzly Flat Trail and hiked down a series of short switchbacks to Stevens Creek. Here we found signs that the trail was closed - when flooded! The creek was down to only a trickle now, but it was still gurgling along and we found a nice log to sit down. We ate our sandwiches, some trail mix and drank some Gatorade before continuing on.

We hiked out of the canyon continuing along the Grizzly Flat Trail for 2.5 miles before crossing Skyline Boulevard and walking over to Long Ridge Open Space Preserve. From there we took the Peters Creek Trail along a ridge line just South of Skyline Boulevard. While along the Peters Creek, we had some nice shade, but before and after we were hiking in open grassland and it was pretty hot, though not as hot as it would have been had we hiked last weekend as originally planned.



As with last week's hike, Spring's wildflowers were pretty much gone, with the exception of some tired looking Farewell-to-Spring blossoms and one group of beautifully large thistles. We continued on reaching the junction with Long Ridge Road, where we turned left for .1 miles before turning left onto Ward Road and the last .75 miles back to Skyline Boulevard. It was another .75 miles along Skyline Boulevard before we reached the car once more, around 2:30 pm and after having hiked approximately 12 miles.

Are we more ready for Half Dome?