The Perfect Weekend Adventure at Big Basin State Park

Nicolette and I decided we needed a weekend away. We decided one of our days was going to be spent at Big Basin State Park.

I had seen a friend's Instagram story and decided I had to make my way out to the forest. We knew the hike was long, but we read in a few different places that it was pretty flat. So we decided to go for the whole thing and make an afternoon of it.

Somewhere along the way we made a wrong turn, or didn't turn. Still not sure exactly what happened. But it added an extra couple of miles to our already 9.5 mile trek. Not to mention probably an extra 500 feet of elevation change. Regardless, nothing was going to bring us down on this hike!

As you can tell, I spend most of my time following Nicolette around taking pictures while she treks on, setting the pace. But it's okay because it's a great view of the new Gregory Swift hydration pack.

After about 7 miles and lots of ups and downs, we decided this hike wasn't quite as easy as people made it out to be. Or maybe we're just in really bad shape...oh well.

Eventually we made it to the waterfalls. They were absolutely worth the miles. Don't be fooled by the photos though, tons of people were all over the place. We had to wait a lot longer for our empty photos than we actually had to take the photos. 

It blows me away how much the trees can block out the light. As we were leaving, we were ready to get out our headlamps to make the final stretch of the hike in the dark. But then we'd come up a hill closer to the tree tops and it would be mid day again. Very misleading.

We made it back to the car tired, sore, and hungry. We had snacks, but we were on a mission and didn't want to stop to eat. The idea of sitting down to a massive meal at the end of the day fueled us on. We spent that evening and the next day in Santa Cruz. Great food and great coffee after a long hike. Such a perfect weekend.