Vicente Flat Campground
An amazing one nighter in Big Sur
As you may know from my Sunol backpacking post, Sunol wilderness is my preferred one night backpacking campsite in the Bay Area. This is where I take first timers to hike along to get a feel for backpacking, and more importantly, to test all their equipment.
This time around I had a friend from So.Cal who is joining me for this year’s JMT section hike, so we decided to meet somewhere in between. Big Sur is inviting and I have always wanted to backpack there, so we hiked the Kirk Creek to Vicente Flat trail.
For starters, since Hwy 1 is closed six miles north of Kirk Creek Campground, I had to drive through forest roads to get there. The drive through Fort Hunter Liggett and then up the mountain range to get down to Hwy 1 is an adventure in itself. I got a sense of Big Sur as I was going up the mountains into deep fog.
The weekend I hiked (last weekend of April), rain was forecast in the afternoon. My friend and I both reached the trail head at 10:30am and started the hike immediately.
Within a mile or so of hiking, we got to see Big Sur at its best.
Not too late after this video, it started to rain. We started to hustle up the trail. We had planned to hike 5 miles up to Vicente flats. The entire tail is no more than 1.5 to 2 feet wide the entire way except for the Espinosa flat campground at mile 3 which has space for about 8 tents. There is no place to even sit down for a few minutes. The first 2.5 miles climb steeply to about 1,800 feet of elevation gain with great views of the ocean. You then crest the top, it is relatively flat till you get to Espinosa campground.
Once you go past the crest of the climb, the trail narrows with wild growth on both sides. It was clear that day hikers climb the first two miles or so and then they return. This meant that once you go past this, you are brushing against shrubs and plants up to your waist on both sides. I did see poison oak along the trail, so beware and do not wear shorts on this trail.
We reached our campsite at around 2pm. The Vicente flats have no reservation and it is first come first served. No one passed us on our way up, so I was surprised to see that there were already 8 tents at the campsite. Turns out six of the hikers were there for the previous night and were returning after a day hike to the “summit”.
It rained on us for an hour or so, but when we reached the campsite, it stopped. We started a fire at around 3pm and had it going until 7:30pm. The campsite itself was glorious. It is in a canopy of redwood trees. There is space for about 18-20 tents here. Since this is first come first served, in Summer, I expect if you are not here by 9am, you won’t find a campsite. As noticed in this video, the creek runs right next to the campsite, so it is easy to filter water and we had the lullaby of running water for the night.
I noticed that my socks and inner layer of injinji toe socks were both soaking wet. I use custom boots made by Kevin Leahy and I have done some shallow creek crossings in the High Sierra, and my feet have never got this wet before, so I wasn’t sure what was going on.
We had steady rain throughout the night. The next morning when we woke up, it was still a strong drizzle, but being inside a canopy, we felt that it was raining harder here with all the overnight rain still in the trees being dumped on us. We quickly packed, had a cold breakfast and started the hike back.
Once we left the campground, the rain almost reduced significantly, but it was replaced by a steady mist and fog the entire hike down. It was like being in a gentle version of the mist trail.
I fell clumsily as we left the campsite, so my friend led me down and after a mile, he said he was soaking wet waist down. We swapped places and almost immediately, I realized what happened. The plants on both sides that were rubbing against us, they were dumping all their water on our legs - since we were the first on the trail. The entire time, it was like having two running water taps by our sides. That explained why my socks were wet. Soon enough, I was wet from my hip down.
I have never carried a rain pant with me on my hikes, I surely missed one this time. I could feel that my socks and injinji layer were soaking wet again, and I did not like the possibility of blisters, but we had little choice but to press on.
More pretty views of Big Sur on the way down. We made it back by 10am (we left the campsite at 7:30am) and drove back through the forest roads again (which, once again is an expedition worth by itself).
I highly recommend the Ventana flat trail for a one night backpacking trip. It has everything, reasonably hard trail with a backpack, wonderful campsite, running water (at least in Vicente flat, the creek is year around). But without permits, be there early in the morning, or you may not find a place to camp.
Here is the AllTrails link, again. https://www.alltrails.com/explore/map/kirk-creek-to-vicente-flat-campground-a2fe8c0
Happy trails!