Exploring historic Tunnel Camp, Vernon, Nevada

Hanging lamp at a small cemetery in the foothills of the Seven Troughs Range: historic Tunnel Camp can be seen further back in the “trough.” The cemetery (I counted 7 crosses) holds the remains of those who tragically died in a flash flood in nearby Mazuma.  

Once you have crossed the Trinity Range northwest of Lovelock in Nevada and are driving downhill into Sage Valley, you can spot a cluster of dark-colored structures in the foothills of the Seven Troughs Range. These are buildings of Tunnel Camp—also known as New Seven Troughs [1]—a historic mining camp dating from the area's early 20th-cenrury mining boom. Tunnel Camp is the best preserved mining camp of the Seven Troughs District, which also includes Vernon and Mazuma.

Bunkhouse, storage building or assay lab?

When I was visiting the area with a friend in September 2024 we parked near the cemetery with the hanging lamps (one featured above) and did a one-mile-plus loop hike—counterclockwise, uphill the dirt road, crisscross through the camp and back downhill to the cemetery. 

Tunnel Camp was actually alive for only a short time (1927-1934). Within that time it “grew to include thirty structures, including stores, a brick mine office, bunkhouses, bathhouses, powerhouses, and homes for the superintendents and higher-level employees. Many of the structures in the new town were relocated from nearby Vernon. Additionally, trees were planted, watered with drainage from the tunnel.” [1].

Here, I am showing a few snapshots, followed by a brief description on how to get to Tunnel Camp. The listed references and selected websites provide additional information to further get to know the Seven Troughs District and its time [1-3] .

The five stamps of the “5-stamp” mill.

Upper structure of the “5-stamp” mill

Uphill from the “5-stamp” mill: view of Sage Valley

Tunnel Camp's brick mine office

Graffiti inside the brick building: a ghost is watching you

“Mining apparel” left behind in one of the smaller buildings

Getting to Tunnel Camp

Paved road section. Tunnel Camp is located at the southern end of the Seven Troughs Range about 14 miles northwest of Lovelock. From the round courthouse in Lovelock head eastward on Central Ave, which continues as N Meridian Rd. Turn west onto Pitt Road (continuing as Seven Troughs Rd). This is the beginning of State Route 399 (Ruta Estatal de Nevada 399). Follow this road over Trinity Pass (elev. 5387 ft.). 

Y-junction sign

Dirt road section. At the Y-junction, where State Route 399 continues as a paved road to Eagle Picher Mines, take the right fork, which is the continuation of Seven Troughs Rd—now a dirt road taking you into Sage Valley. When arriving at another Y-junction, where a sign gives the left-side direction “Seven Troughs - Vernon - Porter Springs” and the right side direction “Stonehouse - Placeritas - Rosebud-Sulphur.” Follow the latter until arriving at the “hanging lamps cemetery” or directly in “central ghost-town.”

References and more to explore

[1] Tunnel Camp, Nevada Ghost Town. December 30, 2021. URL: https://nvtami.com/2021/12/30/tunnel-camp-nevada-ghost-town/.

[2] Tunnel Camp and the Seven Troughs District, Vernon, Nevada. URL: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tunnel-camp-and-the-seven-troughs-district.

[3]  Tunnel Camp - Lovelock, Nv. - 7 Troughs Mining District. URL: https://www.greatbasinbicycles.com/new-blog/2018/10/25/tunnel-camp-lovelock-nv-7-troughs-mining-district.

Off the crest: hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the Feather River Canyon from Belden to Chips Creek

Feather River Canyon near Belden (seen from Pacific Crest Trail, Aug. 29, 2024)

The very short section of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) through the Feather River Canyon gives you a break from the scenic path along the crest with its endless points of panoramic views. Following this path west of Belden (Plumas County, CA), you are traversing the steep northside slopes and tributaries along the Feather River—and you are exploring the (official) boundary between the Sierras and the Cascades [1]. 

Belden Town Resort and Lodge at Feather River

At Belden, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) crosses the Feather River rail line, the Feather River itself, and State Route 70 connecting Quincy and Oroville. At the PCT trailhead next to the Feather River Highway you will find a plaque-on-stone marker summarizing its history as a  “state route of changing numbers”: 

This highway was opened to auto traffic on August 14, 1937 as State Route 24. It was later changed to State Route 40A and finally to State Route 70. 

Belden Powerhouse with penstock

Near the historical marker is a gazebo with an interpretive panel featuring the “Stairway to Power”— a reference to the nine powerhouses in the North Fork Feather River from above Lake Almanor down to Poe Powerhouse upstream of Lake Oroville. 

The Belden Powerhouse [2] is part of this system of  hydroelectric power plants including reservoirs and tunnels:

Water is diverted through tunnels and dropped through steep pipes called penstocks. It then travels through powerhouses (like the one here at Belden) where the water spins turbines connected to generators. The electricity enter a grid that supplies power to 12 western states. At maximum production, 18,000 gallons flow through the Belden Powerhouse...every second!

At the other end of the parking lot you may want to explore the Eby Stamp Mill—a reminder of the hard rock gold mining days. Stairs are leading into the open structure for close-up inspection of the mill. Only five of the original ten ore-crushing stamps have been made part of this historic mill restoration [3]. 

Eby Stamp Mill

PCT incline next to the Eby Stamp Mill

The PCT sign next to the Eby Stamp Mill can't be missed. This is the beginning of the roughly one-mile long path to Chips Creek. After a short ascend the trail levels off. There are sections with views of the river below. One section leads away (north) from the main canyon through a forested area with a tributary.

PCT bridge over Feather River tributary

Once you have crossed the bridge over the creek, the trail goes back (south) and then follows the Feather River Canyon until—under an electric transmission line—it bends northward at another tributary: Chips Creek. A short walk and you will arrive at a 0.3-mile-long path downhill to the water.

The PCT inclines upwards along the eastside slopes of Chips Creek—soon leaving the shaded area. The trail still follows creek.for a while and continues to the Caribou Wilderness and Burney Falls State Park (over 100 miles to the north). Backpacking into these areas, you definitely will have left the Sierras and entered the southern Cascades. While you will find reminders of glacial origins in both ranges, active signs of volcanic origin become more frequent in the Cascades [4].

V-shaped Chips Creek

Getting there

Going west on State Route 70, pass the left-side bridge across the Feather River and find parking on the right side at the Eby Stamp Mill. The northbound PCT into the Cascades starts here (see picture above). No overnight parking!

References and more to explore

[1] Where do the Sierras end and the Cascades begin? URL: https://pcttrailsidereader.com/post/187007197795/where-do-the-sierras-end-and-the-cascades-begin. 

[2] Belden. GridInfo. URL: https://www.gridinfo.com/plant/belden/219.

[3] Plumas County Points of Interest. Eby Stamp Mill. NoeHill Travels in California. URL: https://noehill.com/plumas/poi_eby_stamp_mill.asp.

[4] Steve Huthman. Pacific Crest Trail Ca N - Hwy 70 at Belden Town to Burney Falls. Alltrails. August 5, 2000. URL: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/pacific-crest-trail-ca-n-california-section-n-highway-70-to-burney-falls.

“Floriston Section” of the Tahoe Pyramid Trail: from the East End of Hirschdale Road to Floriston

Truckee Canyon and River with whitewater rapids south of Floriston  

The bistate Hirschdale-to-Verdi section of the Tahoe Pyramid Trail (TPT) is an adventure for hikers and bikers. Finding its way between mostly open slopes between  Interstate 80 and the continental Railroad, it is a scenic trail—even so highway traffic noise rarely fades completely. According to a trailside panel, this canyon section imposed by far some of the most difficult construction challenges of the entire trail. The Donner Party even avoided this section of the Truckee River and traveled west, away from the river, at Verdi.

The TPT “Floriston Section” between the East End of Hirschdale Road and Floriston is open since October 2019 [1]. Here, I am following the mostly single track trail from the Hirschdale Road trailhead to Floriston, providing some pictures to give an overall impression of what you can expect to see while traveling the trail and picking some informative text from panels posted along the first half (Hirschdale to Iceland view point) of the section.

Actual, the first half mile is an old road. 

TPT following the old Hirschdale Rd.

Soon, you will arrive at the beginning of the single-track, where you can learn how the TPT project took off as Janet's vision:

In 2003, Janet (Carson) Phillips began scouting the Truckee River Canyon between Reno and Truckee to build a path as part of her vision to create a bike trail along the entire Truckee River, from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. With paper and pencil in hand, the retired water planner from Reno began sketching a route. Soon other local professionals joined the cause, devoting countless hours of expertise over the years, to help make Janet's vision a reality. Working entirely as an unpaid volunteer, Janet leads a nonprofit that directs more than 90% of its grants and donations to trail building, opening more than 80% of the entire route to the public by 2018. As Janet has said many times, she vows to "finish it while I can still ride a bike!" 

Many sections of the TPT speak of modern, sustainable trail design, but old road remnants were not at all neglected: 

In designing the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail, as many old road segments as possible were included. Unfortunately, when Interstate 80 was built in the late 1950's (to accommodate the 1960 winter Olympics at Squaw Valley [now Palisades Tahoe] much of the old road was obliterated.

In the Truckee River Canyon, construction was difficult for early road engineers, especially since the railroad was granted the most desirable land near the river by Congress in 1860. As a results, when Interstate 80 was built, the highway department had to cut it into the canyon wall high above the river. You can see a vivid example of this two miles east of here.

TPT near the Chris & Ann Askin Bench

The TPT includes rest areas, viewing points and benches. For example, the Chris & Ann Askin Bench with the inscription “Home Is Where The Trail Is.” From the bench you can enjoy amazing canyon views. And next to the bench you get informed about the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA):

After years of discussion and debate, the states of Nevada and California, the United States Government, Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and nine other parties signed the Truckee River Operating Agreement on September 6, 2006. The agreement brings and end to historic uncertainty between Nevada and California over distribution of the river's water, allocating 90 percent to Nevada.

Hiking or biking eastward on the trail section adopted by IGT Core Studio (Reno, NV), the canyon view extends to the Mt. Rose area in the Carson Range. And just  downhill your eyes may “catch” a riverside train.

An Amtrak train on its way to Truckee in California

The next bench & board vista point again offers perfect views of the Truckee flowing by and reports about what was once thriving there, but today only exists as a threatened species:

Lahontan cutthroat trout (LCT) have lived in this river for many thousands of years. Historical records show that some of these fish weighed over 40 pounds! Today's keeps are not so large, but anglers might still be lucky enough to catch descendants of those legends.

The Truckee River's only native trout species is the LCT. It was an important food source for local Native American tribes. Starting in the mid-1800's, settlers brought trouble for those trout. Overfished waters, nonnative species, river pollution, dams and water divisions were left in the wake of early industries like logging and fishing.

By the 1940's, LCT were gone from the Truckee River. Today, they are found in only 3% of their original range and are listed as a threatened species. Recovery efforts on selected reaches of the river are under way—including habitat improvement and reintroductions of LCT.

Given a chance, LCT may once again reach larger sizes and numbers, allowing them to thrive and to keep their natural place in the Truckee River.

The TPT is getting very close to the highway for a short time, before you will find a shaded area with a rest & vista point.

A few steps on a side trail lead to a rest area

This is—in my opinion—the most interesting spot of the “Floriston Section.” What you see are two railroad bridges crossing the Truckee River at the point where Gray Creek meets the Truckee. And what you read is the history of Iceland—Iceland, California (of course):

Across the canyon, you can see where Gray Creek enters the Truckee River. In the 1870's, there was a lumber mill here and ice production [People's Ice Company]. Before refrigeration, ice from the Sierra Nevada was essential to transporting California produce to the East Coast. Old ice pond walls, still visible today, are between the railroad and the river. Iceland even had a post office from 1897 - 1923.

One mile east of Iceland is Bronco Creek. The Wicks brothers operated a wood yard there, complete with store, telegraph station and residence. The Bronco Creek settlement had a post office from 1872 - 1891.

Other, larger communities in the Truckee River Canyon east and west of this location include Boca, Hirschdale, and Floriston.

Gray Creek was not named for its tumbling water that may appear—at a cursory glance—white-gray. Joe Gray, who helped found Truckee, built the lumber mill (mentioned above) here and gave his name to the creek. Gray also was part owner of the People's Ice Company, to which he leased his property in 1876.[2,3]. 

Iceland, CA: once a train stop for loading ice and also home of a Gray's lumber mill

From the Iceland viewpoint to Floriston, the TPT again follows closely alongside the highway for a while, before two switchbacks take you downhill into an aspen grove at the point where the river showcases one of its many whitewater rapids (see top pictures.). Out of the grove, the trail wins uphill until it reaches the 65 foot downward stairs. 

65 foot upard/downward stairs: bike line on the right side

Down the stairs, you have an easy stretch to the Floriston trailhead, passing a hanging rock and then along its signature boardwalk, above and parallel to the whitewater fleece.

Hanging rock

“Floriston Section” boardwalk

Getting to the East End of Hirschdale Road

Take the I-80 exit Boca/Hirschdale Rd. (Exit 194) and go south on Glenshire Dr. After 1000 ft, leave Glenshire Dr. on the left to go south on Hirschdale, which soon bends east to cross the Truckee River. Find trail parking at the end of the road. The TPT follows the degrading Hirschdale Road for about half a mile until it turns single track.

Getting to the Floriston Trailhead

Exit I-80 (Exit 199) at Floriston. There are parking areas on both sides of the river. The trailhead of the “Floriston Section” connecting with Hirschdale Road is between the river and the highway underpass.

Tahoe River Trail donator cube

References and more to explore

[1]  The Tahoe-Pyramid Trail “Floriston Section” is NOW FULLY OPEN 10/5/19. URL: https://tahoepyramidtrail.org/tahoe-pyramid-trail-floriston-section-is-complete-and-open/ (accessed on June 1, 2024).

[2] See the ICELAND entry in Tom Macaulay's  article Ghosts of the Truckee River Canyon; Once bustling towns gone but not forgotten. Truckee-Donner Historical Society. URL: https://www.truckeehistory.org/ghosts-of-the-truckee-river-canyon.html (accessed on June 2, 2024).

[3] Iceland, California. Wikipedia. URL:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland,_California (accessed June 2, 2024).

Carpinteria State Beach: terraced bluffs, tar pit beach and dunes

Tar rocks at Carpinteria State Beach

The Carpinteria State Beach includes campsites within a coastline area of historical and geological interest. This California State Park invites visitors to short nature walks, tidepool explorations and recreational beach activities. 

The southern part of the park exhibits features that may remind you of tar oil pollution. Indeed, these structures derived in the past from tar—but from naturally seeping tar.

Carpinteria tar bluffs

Located along California's Ventura County coast, Carpinteria is one of several places in the western Transverse Ranges north of Los Angeles where tar (asphalt) oozes from the ground in natural seeps. This has happened for millenia. 

For thousands of years humans have found many uses for that tar. For example, the Chumash people waterproofed their baskets and canoes with the sticky tar. In her California Geology book, Deborah R. Harden writes [1]: 

On August 17, 1769, Gaspar de Portola's expedition encountered a group of  Chumash Indians who were caulking their sea canoe with tar, or brea, collected from a nearby pool. Portola's men named the site Carpinteria (carpenter's shop).

Tar bank with Santa Barbara Channel

Decades after Portola's expedition, Carpinteria turned into an industrial site. An onsite panel informs:

In the mid-19th century, druggist Charles Morrell opened the first large-scale venture to mine and refine asphalt oozing from Carpinteria's sand. Morrell's enterprise failed, but another succeeded.

Between 1891 and 1912, the Alcatraz Refinery and Conchas Asphalt Mine turned six acres of this seacoast into gritty, bustling industrial site.

Tar tidepools at low tide

Carpinteria asphalt impregnated sediments—like asphalt deposits sampled at Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles County and McKittrick in Kern County—provide a rich Quaternary insect record [2]: 

Ages range from over 50,000 radiocarbon to modern. The major paleoecological groupings are: (1) ground dwellers, (2) aquatics, (3) scavengers, and (4) miscellaneous.

 

Dune walk north of the tar sites

Getting there

Carpinteria is located twelve miles south of Santa Barbara in California. Take the Linden exit off U.S. 101 and go west on Linden to Carpinteria Avenue. Turn left onto Carpinteria and follow it to Palm Avenue. Go right on Palm and follow it to the beach.

State Park address: Carpinteria State Beach, 205 Palm Ave, Carpinteria, CA 93013.

Maps

Carpinteria State Beach:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/599/files/CarpinteriaSB_CampMapFINAL061322%20(Remediated).pdf.

Playa Estatal Carpinteria:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/599/files/CarpinteriaSBSpanishWeb2014.pdf.

References

[1] Deborah R. Harden. California geology. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458, Second Edition, 2004; page 454.

[2] Scott E. Miller. Quaternary Insects of the California Asphalt Deposits. Third North Paleontological Convention, Proceedings vol. 2. August 1982. URL: 

More to explore

• Carpinteria State Beach. California State Parks. URL: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=599. 
• Natasha Kaves. Few People Know About This Southern California Nature Preserveith Tar Pits And A Seal Sanctuary. Only In Your State, February 27, 2023. URL: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/southern-california/unknown-natural-wonder-socal/.

San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden: open space and trails

Garden and trail directions in the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden

The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden (SLOBG) features a Fire Safe Garden, a Display Garden and the Discovery Trail. The latter loops up and down across open-space hills. According to the posted San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden map at the visitor center, there are ambitious plans for a Future Garden. 

The Future Garden will include a moderate, three-mile-long loop trail: the Panorama Trail connecting five separate areas dedicated to specific biogeographic zones—the mediterranean climate regions. Each area will have an interpretive kiosks, focussing on plants native to one of the regions: the Mediterranean Basin and coastal regions in California, Chile, South Africa, and Australia. 

Currently, the Display Garden features plants from the Mediterranean ecoregions. Here, I am presenting snapshots from a garden tour starting at the Fire Safety Garden, continuing through the Display Garden and then exploring the rolling hills by taking you along my loop hike following the Discovery Trail. 

Fire Safe Garden

To the right of the visitor center is the Fire Safe Garden, which contains panels with information on how to improve the fire safety of your home by implementing fuel reduction and avoiding highly flammable structures and building materials. 

Keep fire-resistant and “water-smart” plants in mind while designing the garden around your house. Although all plants can burn, here are some characteristics you want to look at while selecting plants. Prioritize those that

• store water in their stems and leaves (like succulents),
• hold moisture with little extra watering,
• grow deep roots to obtain water and limit erosion,
• produce little dead material and litter,
• grow low, slow, and need little care,
• grow open and loose with little total vegetation, 
• contain very little volatile resins or oils.

Display Garden

The Display Garden neighbors the Fire Safe Garden. During my visit in early March of 2024, the well-known  evergreen of California, the Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), and two Aloe species (A. speciosa and A. nobilis) from South Africa, caught my attention.

Monterey Cypress (California), Cupressaceae

Aloe speciosa (South Africa), Liliaceae

Aloe nobilis (South Africa), Liliaceae

The common name for Aloe nobilis is Golden Toothed Aloe and you immediately see why.

Discovery Trail

The Discovery Trail begins in the Fire Safe Garden, from where it winds uphill to the sundial. This is an interactive sundial: Once you step into the dial onto the month of the day of your visit and put your hands together over your head, your shadow points to the hour. The picture suggests that I was there around 4:30 pm. Since the sundial is based on daylight savings and I was there at 3:30 pm a day before the start of daylight saving time, I appreciate how well this sundials tells the time (at least, for the purpose of leisure hiking).

Sundial

Next to the sundial is a grove of  Chilean wine palms (Jubaea chilensis). Since palms of this species produce nuts that taste like coconuts, the name “Chile cocopalm” is also used. A SLOBG panel describes how the (relatively) young palms ended up here:

Chilean wine palm

Native to Chile, these palms came from seeds from trees at a motel in King City, California, and a church in Arroyo Grande.

Now 12 to 16 years old, they can live well over one hundred years and reach 80 ft high with trunks 4 to 6 feet in diameter.

At 40 years old, they produce flowers, edible fruit, and nuts. The nuts taste like coconuts.

These Chilean wine palms (Jubaea chilensis), used to be cut down to harvest their sap for a wine-like liquor. They are now protected here and in La Campana National Park, Chile. 

Lizard on lichen

For the next mile or so, the trail continues over hilly grassland. Some rocks here and there. I came across one with a colorful lichen carpet occupied by a sun-bathing lizard.

The panoramic views here are amazing: open-space rolling hill terrain,all around and further away Camp San Luis Obispo and the Nine Sisters—also known as Morro chain or Morros.

Near the junction of the Eagle Rock Trail with the Discovery Trail, I gave myself some time at the panel with the title “Where are the volcanoes?” (subtitle: “Where did these peaks come from?”) to find out about The Morros: 

The Morros are a string of some twenty ancient volcanic plugs. They stretch 16 miles from near San Luis Obispo Airport to the ocean. These plugs were all formed about 20 to 25 million years ago and have been inactive since then. 

For over 100 million years, the North American continent had been drifting westward over Pacific sea floor, forcing rocks downward along its western edge where they melted back into the earth's mantle. This formed a jumbled mix of geologic debris known as the Franciscan Formation, which surrounds these volcanic plugs.

About 20 to 25 million years ago, the North American continent bumped into an ocean ridge. This formed huge pressures which melted rocks into magma and forced the magma to the surface. The magma may have followed existing fault lines or slabs of old rock and oozed (like toothpaste)  to the surface as a line of volcanoes.

The peaks you see today are what remains of the ancient plugs of magma formed within these volcanoes. The Franciscan Formation surrounding these volcanoes was made of older and softer rocks that crumbled and were washed away. As the Franciscan wore away, weather and landslides broke up the sides of the exposed plugs into what remains today.

Just a day before I came here, I climbed, via the Summit Trail, to the top of Bishop Peak—the highest of the Morros. Another Morro, Cerro Romauldo, can be seen from various sections of the Discovery Trail. 

Cerro Romauldo with Eagle Rock on the left

I am finishing the botanical garden tour with the wavy-leafed soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum), featured alongside the northwest section of the Discovery Trail. This interesting plant that was of value to local Chumash and Salinan people, who used the crushed bulb to wash their hair and clothes and fabricated hair brushes from the bulb's tough fibers. 

Wavy-edged leaves of the wavy-leafed soap plant

Today, the wavy-leafed soap plant—and the habitat is it is found in—is of value to all of us. It inspired us learn more about its cultural history as well as its biochemistry.

Getting there

The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden is located in the El Chorro Regional Park on scenic Highway 1 between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay, California.

Address: 3450 Dairy Creek Road, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405.

Visitor Center

Backup and interesting reading

Master Plan for the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden. PDF: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59f8d9d8e45a7c6679c6394a/t/5bbe3a4eeef1a1188bc9bad0/1539193507157/SLOBG+Master+Plan.pdf.

Pam and Gary Baker. Exploring the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden. Garden Destinations. URL: https://www.gardendestinations.com/exploring-the-san-luis-obispo-botanical-garden/.

D. Spano, R. L. Snyder and C. Cesaraccio (2003). Mediterranean Climates. In: Schwartz, M.D. (eds) Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science. Tasks for Vegetarian Science, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. DOI:10.1007/978-94-007-0632-3_10.

Rhys Heyden. Peaks that pique: A guide to hiking and exploring SLO County's Nine Sisters. New Times, January 21, 2015.URL: https://www.newtimesslo.com/news/peaks-that-pique-a-guide-to-hiking-and-exploring-slo-countys-nine-sisters-2947800.

David Chipping. Plant Associations and the Geology of the Morros. CNPS-SLO. URL: https://cnpsslo.org/2018/05/plant-associations-and-the-geology-of-the-morros/.

Wavy-leafed Soap Plant. iNaturalist. URL: https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/181613.

A Morro experience: Bishop Peak Trail

Volcanic plug exploration: on top of one of the two rock piles on Bishop Peak

With a height of around 1,550 feet (472 m), Bishop Peak (also spelled Bishop's Peak) is the highest of the Morros—a chain of volcanic mountains in Central California stretching from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay. Climbing to its top will reward you not just with sweeping views of the San Luis Obispo area, but also with the opportunity of scrambling between interestingly shaped rock-blocks.

Summit Trail with view of the summit

Summit Trail is the path to follow. Don't expect to be alone on the trail or at the summit. California Polytechnic State University is close by: climbing to the top of Bishop Peak seems to be a work-out assignment for most students. The trail winds up a steep, southwest-facing slope. Thanks to the many switchbacks, I didn't experience the upward hike as strenuous (although I overheard people saying it is) and enjoyed the changing vistas of the surrounding rock formations and of Los Osos Valley and the Irish Hills.

To get onto the Summit Trail, I started out from the Highland Drive Trailhead, which is located on the left side near the end of Highland Drive. There, a metal plate—worked into a boulder—has the title Ferrini Ranch Open Space and informs (see picture): 

This Bishop's Peak trail leads to a very special place in the community of San Luis Obsipo. For almost a century, the Ferrini Family have been the stewards of this land and in 1995 they gifted this trail and 138 acres of open space to the people of San Luis Obispo.

The one-mile-long Highland Connector Trail connects the Highland Drive with the Summit Trail. The latter, according to the Bishop Peak Natural Reserve trail map, has its starting point at the Patricia Trailhead . The distance to the summit from the Patricia Trailhead is given as 1.9 miles. The distance from the Highland Drive Trailhead to the summit is somewhat shorter.

Shaded forest section of the Summit Trail

About one half of the hike is across meadows and through shaded oak forest. The other half includes a rockier trail with open views and multiple switchbacks. 

Summit Trail crossing southwest-facing slope

View of tumbled-down boulders and Los Osos Valley

The trail officially ends between two piles of rocks & blocks. If you feel at ease with off-trail explorations, here you may scramble through brushes and grottoes or crawl the final feet to a top position.

Rock sculptures at Bishop Peak's summit

Trail maps

There are trail maps alongside the trail:

And there are PDF maps. Here is the link to the Bishop Peak Natural Reserve Trail Map: https://www.slocity.org/home/showdocument?id=16660.

Further reading

Bishop Peak in San Luis Obispo. URL: https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/bishops-peak-san-luis-obispo-hike/ (accessed March 17, 2024). 

Exploring the Nine Sisters. March 3, 2013. URL:  https://www.slovisitorsguide.com/exploring-the-nine-sisters/  (accessed March 17, 2024).

San Luis Obispo (including a trail map). URL: https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/default/files/sce/santa-lucia-chapter/lucians/BishopPeak.pdf  (accessed March 17, 2024).