Dan's Outside

Weekend Hike #2

Today I got up later (6:30, which is late for me) and didn’t get away until about 9:30. I decided to check out Uvas Park which is located a bit further south than my usual hiking location at Calero Park. Although I have been up the road to this park a couple of times over the years, this is the first time I have hiked there.

After driving through the village of Sveadal (what is that place about?) I arrived at the park and decided not to do the typical waterfall loop that the park is known for, but to instead take the very steep trail to Nibb Knob and Summit Road.

And steep it is! The average incline seems steeper than Mission Peak and the English Camp trails, two area trails that I think of as somewhat steep. The climb is unrelieved; there are no downhill sections on the way out, and only a few where the trail becomes briefly less steep. Being steep, the trail fairly quickly climbs out of the lush vegetation in the valley near the park headquarters and then follows ridges toward the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

I passed the lateral to Nibb Knob on the way up and continued on to Summit Road, hoping to find something interesting there, like perhaps a view to the ocean. No luck. The trail tops out at a dusty dirt road about 50 feet from where it ends and across the way from a fairly ugly homestead full of old trailers and cut up wood. I investigated for a couple minutes before descending back to the Nibb Knob lateral, which I climbed to the summit where I took a lunch break.

The rest of the descent went quickly – much faster than the ascent – and I was soon back at the park headquarters, having taken exactly zero photographs. It may have been the harsh midday light or perhaps I just felt like hiking, but I didn’t even take my camera out of the pack.
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January 21, 2007 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Trips