Portola Redwood State Park

Sequoia nature trail, Iverson trail and Tip Toe Falls

This is a beautiful, beautiful state park in the Portola valley, just off Skyline boulevard in La Honda California. The sad part first, it is one of the parks selected to be shut down by July 2012 due to budget cuts. I wish we could all do a little bit more for these parks, and we can, by just visiting them. So please do visit these parks, they need help.

Now onto the happy part. Firstly, its a long winding drive to get to the park from anywhere in the bay area. The roads are narrow and winding so lower gears and slow driving is essential. You would want to stay aware of cyclists and motor bikes on the roads as well. Once you are at the park, get to the visitor center and pay the day usage fees. While you're at the visitor center spend some time looking at the various nature exhibits.You can then park your car in one of three day use lots viz, Huckleberry, Madrone and Tan Oak day use areas. We chose the Tan Oak area due to its proximity to the visitor center.

Bridge on Sequoia Nature Trail

The hike that we chose to do started off right behind the visitor center on the Sequoia nature trail. This is a short trail which runs about a mile and half long, including a loop around the Shell tree. After you get on the sequoia trail, cross the bridge and stay on the trail for another 0.3mi. At this point you should be at a junction that splits in the Iverson trail and the other arm that continues as the Sequoia trail. Stay on the right to continue on the Sequoia trail to get to the Shell tree. This tree was burnt down by a careless camper in 1989, it was a 2000 year tree with a base circumference of 54 feet. What a shame!!

Getting onto the Iverson trail

Once done with the loop around Shell tree, you can head back to the junction where you stayed on the right and get onto the Iverson trail. A further 1.25mi on the Iverson trail will lead you to a spur. The tip toe falls are at the end of this spur. All along this section, you are right alongside the Pescadero creek. This provides ample opportunity to get down creek side and enjoy the beautiful sounds they make flowing downstream. After about of 10 minutes sitting in front of the falls we made our way back on the Iverson trail heading towards Iverson cabin site. From here cut across the summit trail, the service road and back on the Iversion trail to head back to the visitor center. Round trip will be about 6 miles.

From this post onwards I will post all the relevant images in the hike. You will be able to co-relate them to the sections of the hike outlined above.