Arroyo Seco Gorge - Beautiful Contrasts
The Arroyo Seco gorge area of the Los Padres National Forest is a wonderful place full of contrasts. The hills are very dry, the river very wet. The air is hot, the water is cool. The mountains incredibly steep, many hikes easy and flat. The afternoons are hot, late night is cool with 35 degree temperature swings not unusual. The day use area is crowded, the gorge area is not.
Thursday we left San Jose at 10, stopped for a fast food lunch and to buy supplies and were set up in our campsite before 2. It is probably not much more than a 2 hour drive. We took the Arroyo Seco Road exit just past Soledad and followed it through fields of salad vegetables and grapes to the end where we entered the neat Arroyo Seco Gorge National Forest Service campground.
We spent the afternoon at the day use area. Kids were splashing around. Families were eating and drinking beer. I swam and scrambled upstream and got away from the crowd. My family stayed at the day use area. I made it to a neat waterfall coming in on the right side. I saw a little stream and followed it 10 ft. in and came to a hidden grotto with a 25' water fall. That water was colder than Arroyo Seco. It was a special place. I don't have a waterproof camera so didn't get photos of the falls or other features up close. Click any photo for a larger image. These are of the day area:
Friday we hiked up Arroyo Seco road 3 miles. The dirt road is closed to traffic. There are amazing drop offs down to the canyon bottom. I got a bit nervous peering over the edge. The hike is easy. There was a fire in the area last year and it was closed until this spring. You could see burnt trees and lots of new undergrowth. It was good the area was left alone to heal for a year.
On the north facing slopes Oak, Manzanita, Toyon, Sycamore and more grow allowing for shady walks. The road was partly shaded and pleasant. We saw an intriguing trail across the gorge that was in full sun. I wondered where it went. The south facing slopes are very bare with scattered Oak trees and sparse Savanna plants.
At about 2+ miles we crossed a bridge over a stream. That is probably the closest access to the most spectacular part of the gorge. At the 3 mile point Marble Peak trail crosses the road. I took that down to the river while my wife and daughter walked back to camp along the road.
The Marble Peak trail led to a nice pedestrian bridge across the river. On the other side one can access the river which I did. There is lots of brush, mostly cottonwood trees, rushes, sedges and other riparian plants on the riversides. I picked my way through the brush when I could at times crossing the river. After a long while, a few swims and much wading and scrambling I caught up to where the side stream we crossed earlier joined the Arroyo Seco.
This was the start of the most exciting part of the adventure. I ran into 5 young men who had entered at the side stream, scrambled down the gorge and were making their way back. They were a group of contrasts: one had a beard the rest clean cut, one had long blonde hair the rest short, one had lots of colorful tattoos the others didn't, another had many piercings all over (ears, nose, lips, nipples, belly) and the last one had baggy shorts falling down to his thighs. They were the only people I saw on the river until I made it out to the day use area.
The canyon walls got steeper and narrower. I was cold and wet, there was a strong breeze and I looked for a spot to warm up. Just before a very narrow slot in the cliffs there was a strong rapid and a small but smooth sloping rock. I lay there on the very hot rock listening to the roar and conjuring up thoughts of a major waterfall just through the slot. I scared myself a little bit. When warm I just jumped in the pool below the rapids and floated through the slot.
You could touch the rock wall on either side. The rocks sloped overhead so the water was completely shaded. It must have been very deep; the water was ink black at that point. Just around the bend I came out into a long and deep pool. The water everywhere on the trip was crystal clear and just beautiful.
I knew many people traveled down the river so there really was no reason to be scared. There were many more pools separated by rapids. Finally I made it to the hidden falls so knew I the day use area was within an hour or less of travel. All in all it took me more than 5 hours to scramble, walk and float down what took me 1 hour to walk around by road. It was a great experience and I will do it again.
I took a small day pack with a half gallon of Kool Aide, a sandwich, snacks and suntan lotion. I missed applying suntan lotion to my ankles so they got sun burn. At first the pack got wet and heavy so I was thinking I should not have brought it. Later I cuddled it while floating down pools and was very, very glad to have it. My food was in a lock and lock container inside a gallon baggie inside a large trash bag. I brought 2 three quart water bags with only 2 quarts of bug juice. As they were filled with air both provided good buoyancy. I wore a quick dry synthetic shirt, bathing shorts and women's water shoes. I couldn't find footwear at the last minute so ended up buying some $6 ill fitting water "socks" from RiteAid. Anyone with less than total confidence in their swimming ability should wear a life vest.
Back at the Arroyo Seco Gorge campground that night I slept well! I had used muscles I don't normally use. We ate a big dinner of junk food - hotdogs, chips, brownies and like that. It was Friday night and the campground had filled up. Weekends are packed with a wide variety of people. If you want to visit on a weekend I recommend getting a reservation ahead of time. Otherwise go on a weekday, it probably won't be crowded and you will likely find a nice site on a first come first served basis. The National Forest campground is very nice and is the only place I recommend staying if you visit the area for longer than a day trip.
7/12/2009 (c) Copyright Carl Wohlforth
Help me with my quest oh omniscient oracle:
Have fun! Bid for one on eBay:
Outbid? No worries, try Half.com:
Amazon has lots more than just books:
Need a web host? I use & recommend inmotion:
Collect coins? Check out Carl's Coins:
We are affiliates of the businesses listed above. Clicking through our link before doing business with them helps support this website. Thank you!
