Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
grown with waist-high poison oak, and there are no campsites along the trail. Neither
route is suitable if you're toting a heavy pack.
Although the Forest Service doesn't make trail maintenance or construction a
priority, it would be valuable to build a trail along Tassajara Creek to the Tassajara
Cutoff Trail. This new route would connect to Tassajara Road and eliminate the need
to maintain the Horse Pasture and Tony Trails, not to mention lead through one of the
backcountry's most spectacular canyons.
In the meantime, you're better off staying at one of the camps along
Willow
Creek
(
Willow Springs
is a favorite) and dayhiking to the hot springs. Remember,
reservations are required at the
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center,
and it's closed to
the public between late September and early April.
SIDE TRIP
The 4.8-mile
Horse Pasture Trail
(3.6 miles, 1070') crosses brush-choked slopes
high above Tassajara Creek on its 1300-foot ascent to
Tassajara Road.
It's a hot,
exposed route in summer and a tick-infested trek in spring. Regardless, it's useful if
you're headed to the
Church Creek Trailhead,
Tassajara Cutoff Trail, or the Zen
Mountain Center.
After 2.1 miles, you'll reach the
Tassajara Cutoff Trail junction.
This trail
leads a mile to Tassajara Creek and 0.3 mile farther to the monastery. Gorgeous pools
line the narrow canyon, offering welcome opportunities to swim and lounge about on
smooth, sun-warmed rocks.
The Horse Pasture Trail continues another 2.1 miles to Tassajara Road, where a
left turn leads 0.2 mile to the Church Creek Trailhead and 1.3 miles to the monastery.
A few feet past the Horse Pasture Trail junction, amid open stands of oaks and
pines, a 70-foot spur leads from the Marble Peak Trail to the well-established though
unofficial
Horse Pasture Camp
(3.7 miles, 1070'). Equestrians frequent this idyll-
ic camp amid a small rock-studded meadow, which in spring is blanketed in colorful
wildflowers. Camp can accommodate up to two tents in the shade of live oaks and
maples. Two small cascades gurgle away not 50 feet from camp, but the route to Wil-
low Creek is heavily overgrown with poison oak.
