Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Trip 56
WILLOW SPRINGS & STRAWBERRY CAMPS
LENGTH AND TYPE: 24.2-mile out-and-back, loop, or point-to-point
RATING: Strenuous
TRAIL CONDITION: Passable to Willow Springs; dense poison oak, brush, and faint tread to Strawberry
Camp
HIGHLIGHTS: Wind your way through narrow gorges and verdant canyon bottoms past crystal-clear trib-
utaries and cool, dark pools.
TO REACH THE TRAILHEAD:
This hike begins where the pavement ends on Arroyo
Seco Road.
TRIP SUMMARY:
This route from Arroyo Seco Road along the Marble Peak and South
Fork Trails to Strawberry Camp and beyond offers multiple out-and-back and point-
to-point destinations, including: (1) Willow Springs Camp (13.8 miles out-and-back);
(2) Pine Ridge Trail junction via Black Cone Trail (14.6 miles one way, with option
to continue 15.8 miles to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park or 5.4 miles to Pine Valley); (3)
Tassajara Hot Springs (11.5 miles point-to-point to the Church Creek Trailhead); and
(4) Tassajara Hot Springs via Tony Trail (19.2 miles out-and-back).
From Arroyo Seco Campground, you'll climb steep Arroyo Seco Road for 2.4
miles above the lower Arroyo Seco. Short spurs from the road drop to the banks of
the river, where you can roam the canyon floor, swimming, sunning, climbing, and
boulder-hopping around each bend.
Trip Description
See
TRIP 55 Tassajara Hot Springs
for the first 6.5 miles of this route to the
Tony Trail
junction.
Past the Tony Trail junction (1800') on the
Marble Peak Trail,
you'll make three
boulder-hops across
Willow Creek
in fairly rapid succession over the next 0.4 mile,
emerging at
Willow Springs Camp
(6.9 miles, 1970') amid a magnificent grove of live
oaks. One of the most charming camps along the Marble Peak Trail, Willow Springs is
large enough to accommodate up to 12 tents, depending on one's willingness to camp
on slightly sloping ground. In early morning, even the soundest sleepers will wake to
the chorus of numerous birds marking their territories and finding mates along the fer-
tile canyon ripe with insects, acorns, seeds, and fruit.
