Castle Rock hiking: Saratoga Gap Trail and Ridge Trail

Vaqueros sandstone with tafoni at Castle Rock Sate Park

Castle Rock Falls

A scenic, 5-mile-long hiking trip in Castle Rock State Park, California, includes a section of the Castle Rock Trail and the full length of both the Saratoga Gap Trail and the Ridge Trail. There is an Interconnector Trail between the latter two, allowing for an overall shorter loop. You want to extend? Just add in a side loop to check out the interpretive shelter near Goat Rock. Trail highlights are the Castle Rock Falls (early spring), the “tafoni-decorated” Vaqueros sandstone sites and the never-ending views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Big Basin and Monteray Bay.

This is a popular hiking and climbing area. As you get past the Interconnector Trail (post at its Saratoga Gap Trail junction shown on the left) into the Varian Peak area, you probably will experience less trail traffic. The waterfall and Goat Rock are the main attractors (and accessible in shorter time).

Don't miss the Patrick Charles Allen Memorial Grove of redwoods near the footbridge on Saratoga Gap Trail close to the Interconnector Trail junction. A short path leads down into a ravine with a redwood fairy ring.

As you continue on westward on Saratoga Gap Trail—now skirting Varian Peak—and leave the dense forest, the path winds through chaparral covering steep hillsides. The trail has rocky parts, under your foot (watch your steps!) and in front: you are approaching a Tafoni Cliffside. At some point you need to negotiate a narrow ledge, but a metal cable at the rock face helps you to stay on track.

Saratoga Gap Trail with tafoni cliffside in front

Back in the forest, the scenery changes from eroding sandstone to exfoliating bark: Pacific madrones are shedding their reddish-brown “skin.” 

Madrone trunk with peeling bark

Soon, you will be at the junction from where the Ridge Trails ascends towards Russell Point and continues along the ridge line toward Varian Peak and Goat Rock. There are a only a few vista points on this stretch of trail.

View from Ridge Trail: Can you trace the Saratoga Gap Trail winding through chaparral?

While Dan Seldows's Fraggle Rock Grove is a great spot to meditate in shade, the Emily Smith Observation Point and the scenic overlook near Goat Rock provide sweeping views of the San Lorenzo Headwaters Natural Preserve and beyond—one level up from the views you experienced along Saratoga Gap Trail.

At the Partridge Farm Interpretive Shelter—off the Ridge Trail near Goat Rock—you may want to rest and study the Castle Rock history. Between Goat rock and the shelter you will pass by yet another named grove: Ralph and Velma Angle Memorial Grove. I still need to find out, what this grove is about.

Partridge Farm Interpretive Shelter

The tafone of a nearby rock could also serve as a shelter. Its sandstone wall contains roughly spherical, differently colored masses, which—as I hopefully recall correctly from my geology lesson at the shelter—are termed cannonballs. At least, shape and size looks right.  

Tafone with rounded “cannonballs” in the wall

Past these outcrops, Ridge Trail descends over rocks and occasional stairs into the canyon of King Creek, where it meets Saratoga Gap Trail to close the loop. The park entrance at Skyline Blvd. is 0.2 miles away—uphill.

Getting there

From Saratoga Gap—the intersection of Hwy 35 (Skyline Blvd.) and Hwy 9—drive south on Hwy 35. The Main Park Entrance for Castle Rock State Park will come up on the right side after about two miles. The park brochure features a trail map: https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/538/files/CastleRockSPFinalWebLayout082117.pdf.

Address

Castle Rock State Park
15000 Skyline Boulevard
Los Gatos, CA 95030

More about Castle Rock State Park

Rebecca Pratt visited Castle Rock State Park recently and hiked there with Beatrix Jiménez from Sempervirens Fund. She writes about her nature experience and reflects on the past and future of the park in the Summer 2019 issue of Bay Nature. Link: https://baynature.org/article/a-21st-century-gateway-to-castle-rock-state-park/.