Berry Creek Falls - Big Basin National Park.

When a weekend sailing regatta got cancelled at the last minute, my dad and I looked at eachother and new we could quickly fill up a weekend with a backpacking adventure.  My good friend from UCI, Rick, was also visiting for the weekend and he quickly joined in on the trip as well.  We packed up Saturday morning and drove 1.5 hours up to Big Basin National Park.  With all our backpacking gear packed, we learned from the park ranger at the camp that a reservation was necessary to stay where we had planned to camp.  The only open site was over 10 miles away, which we declined for a short one night backpacking trip.  After weighing our options, we decided to just complete the roundtrip hike to the falls as a day hike.  We lightened our loads, checked out the map, and started.

We decided to take the Howard Hihn Trail, which was much quieter than the main trail to the falls and had amazing ocean views.  We stopped at the McAbee Mountain outlook for some water and snacks, and to enjoy the amazing view of the ocean.

The scenery quickly changed from a flat fire road, to a small trail and a long downhill climb.  And we even spotted a few banana slugs along the way! It is amazing to be surrounded by huge redwoods - as long as I remembered to look up every once in a while.

We eventually reached the main trail to the falls - and realized how many people were on the same adventure as us.  After the first 3+ miles when we only saw one other couple, now we were on a highway of families, couples, and tons of different languages.

The waterfall was amazing! Somewhere between 60 - 80 feet, and you can view it from the bottom, the top, and far away between giant redwoods

(We were too chicken to look over the side when we were standing at the top of the waterfall)

Until next time - Happy travels!