Castle Rock

Took a short camping trip in Castle Rock State Park. Located only one hour’s drive away from San Francisco, this popular park does not require reservations for camping. We got to the park pretty late (thanks Daniel), around 3PM. The area was filled with parked cars, but we still found a spot. We registered and began the hike.

The initial part of the hike followed a gully, and it was beyond crowded. It was nearly an even mix of day hikers and climbers; Shin noted she felt a bit out of place with backpacking gear haha. Proceeding through the wooded area, we came accross a platform over a cliff and saw an adventure tour group rappelling down some rock. The trail wound up and down the hillsides before emerging into open air. The trees cleared up a bit, and we got a nice West-facing view of the mountains all the way to the Pacific. We began encountering rocks, on and around the trail. We scaled some small ones, observed some climbers on others. Eventually the trail returned back to a wooded area and we found ourselves at Castle Rock Trail Camp. There were 25 sites, one of which was occupied when we arrived around 1600. We scouted out the upper sites before checking out the spacious campsites at Frog Flat. The best one there being taken, we went returned to the upper sites to settle on campsite 23. We had a firepit, picnic table, and two clear tent sites, as well as potable water, an outhouse, and trash recepticles nearby. Several other groups wandered in after us around this time. We (eventually) got a fire going, ate some food, played Catan, enjoyed the cool but not cold clear night, and hit the hay.

We woke up and got moving pretty late. Instead of Saratoga Gap Trail, we took the Ridge trail, which didn’t have as nice views as expected, as it was wooded for a while. We played on some rocks, such as Goat Rock though, which was fun. Good views, bit of scrambling. Eventually, we had to resume pace to get back in time for the Super Bowl.