Aug 07, 2005 - Saturday.
We started out from San Jose at 9:30 AM. Head out 85 South. It was interesting to join 101 South using the Car Pool lane to car pool lane switch. Right on Tennant, Left on
Monterey Road, Right on Watsonville Avenue, Right on Uvas Road. You will see the Uvas reservoir on the Right. Left on Croy Road. You will reach Sveadal - this is private property - so go slow. At the end is the Uvas Canyon County Park. Take a $5 day parking permit for your car and park in the parking lots. The drive on freeway was 30 miles and the rural road was 15 miles of which less than 5 miles was slightly winding (very easy).
Watch for Poison Oak. We photographed at-least one of this picture.
Took the waterfall loop trail. skipped Black Rock Falls as the quantity of water was too less. The first falls we officially saw was the Upper Falls. We took pictures at the top and bottom of the falls. Next ventured towards Basin Falls. Some on has tied a rope to a tree at the top of the falls. It was fun going down the rope. Noticed the standard Rocky mountain's rocks. One different thing was the new black (Granite rocks?) had well rounded and soft rocks embedded in them - kind of like the granite flowed into the soft rocks or the soft rocks fell into the granite in molten state and solidified. We caught up with the Black Rock on the return. This was too dry this season. Definitely we could see it's potential when it is full running. Noticed many small lizards on the down trip. Noticed few areas of minor rock (1 inch rocks) slides. We got to be careful in the rainy seasons.
On the way down, we reach the Granuja Falls that has no marks from the trail - but there is a sign board near the falls. Following the falls we reached the road. Cross the road/bridge and get on the Swenson Creek trail. We yanked out to the picnic area and to the parking lot.
The water Falls trail seem to start closer to the camping area.
I believe we should have gone further down the Swenson creek trail and might have noticed Uvas Falls when Swenson joins Uvas. May be we can take care of this on our next trip - hopefully when the water is flowing in larger quantities.
At upper falls, we did not have much energy to continue towards the contour canyon - to reach the Triple Falls. We skipped this falls totally for this time.
Next potential trips are to
Big Basin park – it is 12 miles round trip and it is strenuous due to long trip.
Mt. Diablo on the east bay
North Bay