Joaquin Miller Park
Hike Review
Cassie and I hiked a loop around Joaquin Miller Park by parking on the street next to The Cascade, then hiking Sunset Loop Trail, Fern Ravine Trail, Sequoia Bayview Trail, Bayview Trail, West Ridge Trail, Roberts Ridge Trail, Big Trees Trail, Sequoia Bayview Trail, then the Sunset Trail back to The Cascade.
We were aiming for a chill rainy day hike with lots of trees, and this park was just perfect. The trails offered a ton of different trees (from manzanitas to redwoods to oak to acacias to bay trees) and the trail never got too difficult (though a few were a bit slippery in the rain).
We saw very few folks out on the trail because it was a rainy day. The parking was really easy too, as there were a ton of open spots in the park as well on the street. The restrooms were clean enough.
One of the coolest things about this park is that the path we walked took us on or near the stairs at The Cascade (a beautiful waterfall feature with stone stairs), the Woodminster Amphitheater (an open-air theater where plays are performed), and the Chabot Space & Science Center (an observatory and planetarium).
This park is adjacent to Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park, which makes it easy to lengthen the hike to one’s desire.
We saw 10 banana slugs and 6 different dogs (all who were off-leash, which is against the park rules).
What Happened?
5.3 miles, 2 hrs 37 mins, 1056 ft of ascent
On a rainy day, we wanted a chill day to sleep in and take things easy, so we got to Joaquin Miller Park at 2 p.m. We started the hike dry, and even took off layers as we gained elevation on our route to the Chabot Space & Science Center. First, we admired the care that was put into building The Cascade, with the careful stonework that must have been required to create a cascade of waterfalls and the stone stairs. We then walked past the Woodminster Amphitheater, which we got curious about as we learned that it was built in 1941! There seems to be a company that runs several different plays all throughout the summer. We then started our hike in earnest and were surrounded wholly by trees. We heard the chatter of the forest as the trees swayed to the wind and warned us of the incoming storm.
When we got to the Chabot Space & Science Center, it was still mostly dry and we stopped by to see if we could get some drinks or a snack. Unfortunately, they only had astronaut ice creams for sale and we were not interested in that. We then continued our hike and it started to rain, just a little bit. When we got to the Big Trees Trail, it really started to pour and we quickly made our way back to our car. While most of our clothes were water-resistant, it was not waterproof and we didn’t want to get completely soaked.
We made it back with big smiles on our faces and we drove towards home with us thinking of all the warm foods we could make for ourselves.
