Introduction:
Where?
: parking location is on skyline hwy 35, 1.6 mile south of Saratoga Gap
junction (hwy 9 & 35), on the left side of the road.
Google Map Link
What? : Short trail that lead to a nice big rock boulder overlooking the south bay. If it too short you have few options to extend this hike.
When? :
The Summit Rock section access is only open at Sep. to Jun.
The trail
is open and recommended year-round, hiking within the forest so not direct sun
at summer or protection from direct rain or wind at winter.
Due
note 1: This is part of the skyline trails, very good place for Mountain Biking.
Due
note 2: Across the road there is an active gun range, so you do here the load shooting
noise.
Due
note 3: This trail section can be crowded at weekends, but it is not so bad.
Due
note 4: There are many other hiking options nearby, Castell Rock is just there,
and the popular skyline ridge trail is going parallel to the road. You can go
down all the way to Sanborn park down in valley below (need to climb up).
Due
note 5: If you planed you visit to be at the late afternoon and finish just before
sunset you can find one of the most beautiful sunset viewing points on skyline.
It located 1000 feet north of the parking lot on the west side of the road.
My
thoughts: I really like this section of the skyline trail (from Saratoga Gap to
Castell Rock and down to Sanborn park). It is excellent place to run/hike/bike in
the deep forest, it stays on the top of the ridge (without major climbs), part
of a very long trail (mostly single-track) provides good mountain biking experience.
The
visit:
From the
nearby parking lot, it is a nice and easy old fire road trail, 0.8-mile-long,
going to Summit rock. The rock is an interesting outstanding bolder formation viewing
the south bay and covered with graffiti.
The nearest
hike entrance is at Parking Summit Rock on hwy 35, you can also start at Saratoga
Gap parking (additional 1.8 miles) or even come from Castell Rock park entrance
(half a mile from the new parking lot to the Summit rock).
The large
rock can be climb over (from the tree at the left side) and from the top you
will get the valley view.
Once visiting
the rock section, you can go back to your car on the same trail you came (overall
visit of 1+ hr) or you can extend this with a nice, less travel loop.
From the trail junction that lead to the Summit Rock (that has the sing on the gate) take the trail that is going straight down, this trail is going steeply down until you will reach a small stream (after 0.6 mile). From here you will climb for 0.5 mile until you will connect back to the skyline trail, here you will continue the road trail to the right (the left single track, that say bike route, is the skyline trail going parallel the road).
Another 0.7 mile on this trail will bring you
back to the trail junction near Summit Rock where you stated this loop.
Overall
this is additional 1.8-mile hike with some climbing back from the lower creek,
but it is a nice hike in the deep redwood forest and a lot less people are
hiking here.
Between
Feb. and Aug. the rock access is close due to bird nesting, you can still hike
the trail but no Summit Rock access.
During weekends
you will hear the loud gun firing noise from the shooting range across the
road.
Map:
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Sanborn%20Guide%20Map.pdf
Pictures:
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