A steep hike through rugged terrain to a nice vista point with views of the Pacific and Santa Cruz mountains.

Location: Big Basin Redwoods State Park

» RedwoodHikes Map: Excellent map showing Skyline to the Sea Trail all the way from Waddell Beach to Chalk Mountain.

» Official Map: Large sized map without mileage information.

» Mappery.Com Trail Map: Good quality map showing various trails. Mileage of trail sections is missing. This is a JPEG image of the Virtual Parks trail map.

» Redwood Hikes Map: Bay Area Trail Map: Saratoga to Big Basin, First edition, 2010. This is an excellent map sold by Dave Baselt ($6.95 in Dec 2011). This map is useful for exploring many parks in this area. Highly recommended for avid hikers.

To Chalk Mountain (6.8 miles): From Waddell Beach, follow Skyline to the Sea Trail (paved road for 0.4 miles) → left on Skyline to the Sea Trail (1.3 miles) → left on Clark Connection Trail (1.0 miles) → Westridge Trail (4.0 miles) → right on Chalks Road to an overlook on Chalk Mountain (0.1 miles).

To Waddell Beach (6.8 miles): Retrace your steps back to the beach.

Notes:

1. At the intersection of Clark Connection Trail and Skyline to the Sea Trail, there is a sign saying that Westridge Trail is 2.0 miles and Chalk Mountain is 9.0 miles. These are probably estimates for the round trip. The actual one-way mileages are 1.0 miles and 5.1 miles respectively.
2. Many steep sections along the way. See elevation profile.
3. Very few people visit Chalk Mountain due to the ruggedness of terrain. On a Sunday morning in April 2013, we did not meet anybody else.

Location: Rancho Del Oso Visitor Center, 3600 California 1, Davenport, CA 95017 . Parking area is visible in Google Maps if you zoom in sufficiently.

Google Maps:

Parking Fees: None (last visited: Jan 2011)

Capacity: Dozens of cars may be parked next to Waddell Beach.

Latitude: 37.097065     Longitude: -122.279597