Overall Rating A+
Two wonderful nights spent in this coastal sanctuary (Oct 20-22, 2017) . Wildcat Beach is roughly two miles long and is only accessible via foot, horse, or bike (unless you are working the the National Park Service). One of few tidal falls in the world exist on the southern end.
We hiked in from the Bear Valley Visitor Center – approximately 6.5 miles through a variety of micro climates.
The first half of the hike was along the Bear Valley Trail – which is easy walking, mostly along a fern banked creek. The second half was mostly along the Glen Camp Trail, which is single track and a fair bit of climbing until it joined the descending Stewart Trail.
I was fortunate enough to book one of the bluff sites a few months ago during an occasional availability check..it must have been a recent cancellation because it was not available when I checked previously.
Once the camp was visible, I pointed out our site to the girls and they rushed ahead and beat me to it.
We left the car around 1:50pm on Friday..and got to the site around 4:30. The first thing we did was drop the packs and head to the bluff. Situated roughly in the center of the beach it offers a magnificent view of the beach and bay, South towards the waterfall (all though it is not visible from here):
North towards Coast Camp, North West towards the Point.
The long rows of waves continually crashing on the beach making a surprisingly loud but very pleasant array of sounds. The Sun was heading towards the horizon so I started boiling some water on my trusty MSR wisperlight while they started setting up their tent.
That night we hydrated a large bag of dried minestrone soup and added a dried bag of Spanish rice (both purchased at a grocery store we hit before leaving town)…a tasty combination. Later we had hot chocolate and xxx cookies.
The sun set while we were cooking so we missed it dropping below the horizon but we were witness to a long show of changing pink clouds as the sunset moved through the different cloud layers.
Later that night Iona thought she saw the Milky Way but I said it was probably a cloud because it was somewhat overcast, however the Galaxy was out in full force Saturday night so she was probably right.
We put all our food and things like deodorant in the food box in order to keep critters out of our tent and we put the rest of the gear in our tents because the condensation was already starting to appear and one could tell things were going to get very wet overnight.
I was pleased to see that that since I was last there they moved the pit toilets and brought in a new source of potable water. The water used to be so mineralized that it tasted horrible and would start clogging your filter when treating it, but now it tastes pretty good…so we didn’t need the powdered gateraid that I carried in.
We woke up to wet tents but our gear was mostly dry. We made breakfast of oatmeal and raisins (and coffee for me), packed lunch supplies in my backpack and headed to the Falls via the beach around 10:45am. Unfortunately I did not write down the tide times and our phones had no service so it was not immediately clear if the tide was coming in or out. We asked a woman on the beach and she said someone told her low tide was at noon, so we headed out along the beach knowing that there is an exit route from the beach to the coast trail at the Falls. But, after getting about half way it became obvious that the tide was coming in and that the beach ahead would soon be impassable, so we turned around. We later confirmed via some Cal coeds that noon was the high tide (11:30am the day prior).
We headed back to Wildacat camp so we could pick up the coast trail and we headed out again. A pleasant trail in bluff scrub. After a bit we came to a fantastic Vista and several other people including some of our camp neighbors were enjoying the view and lively conversation. We continued on until the trail crossed the creek that feeds the Falls so I decided to start recording or track and follow the marginal trail that followed the creek.
The main trail continues past the creek and there is no official trail to the beach but I knew it was possible to get there. However after going about 2/3 of the way the brambles and poison oak turned us back – but the girls did get to experience some honest bushwacking. Once we got back to the main trail, and did a bit of poison oak decon we decided to make lunch: flour tortillas with hummas, tomato, avacado and cheese…very yummy.
Several hikers, starting from the southern Palomarin entrance, came by asking if this was the trail to the beach and we said no, others said they going to the Falls via wildcat camp, but then two woman came by saying they heard that there was a path marked by a rock arrow and if they did not come back this way then they found it. So after lunch and they did not return, the girls set out to find it and I soon followed. We were quite excited when we found it! The prospect of going back to camp and then out to the Falls via the beach was not favorable.
The side trail to the Falls was a bit narrow in spots but a virtual freeway compared to the failed creek route. It drops down to a very cool rocky area where the creek forms several mini falls and pools…a special spot with many happy people taking it all in. One of the mini falls looks like a scale model version of the world renowned Burney Falls.
After scrambling down the gully to the beach we hung out at the base of the Falls with the other hikers for a bit, one of whom was playing a large piece of sea weed as a trumpet…remarkedly well.
By this time it was getting near low tide so we headed back to camp along the beach and made pasta with pesto for dinner. A group of boy scouts arrived and had set up camp. I spoke with another group of campers and they had packed in oysters the night before and some of their members went back to the car that day to resupply!
The stars that night were fantastic and the new moon was the thinest of slivers, with the orb outline slightly visible. One could imaging the Sun pointing up to it and lighting just that side.
We saw a fox for the second night in a row as he came around to inspect camp. And we enjoyed watching a gopher drag large branchs done his hole into his leir.
The next morning we had breakfast, while the tents dried, and slowly broke camp. We hit the trail around 10:50am and made great time to the car. We stopped for a milk shake in Fairfax and were home around 3:30pm.
A great trip. I am so happy my daughter and her friend wanted to go! The weather was fantastic and we just missed the first rain of the season by a day (before we arrived).
