Getting Out: Familiar places are nice to revisit, but it is
always exciting and intriguing to hear about a park or open space
that is brand new.
Familiar places are nice to revisit, but it is always exciting and intriguing to hear about a park or open space that is brand new.
Dave Sellers, an old friend who now lives in Prunedale, told me that I had to visit Toro Park down his way. With a couple of exceptions, I rarely look south for a hiking destination. A few weeks after Dave made his suggestion, we arranged to take a hike together, and it seemed a perfect time to visit a new place with Dave as my guide.
Toro Park is a Monterey County Park located 13 miles from the Monterey Peninsula on the south side of Highway 68, and it links the peninsula with Salinas. It is 4,756 acres large and has 20 miles of hiking trails – a big chunk of open space to roam. How come I have never heard of this place?
The entrance to the park is grand and the area just inside the gate ($4 fee on weekdays, $6 on holidays and weekends) is beautifully developed. In front of the hills that rise beyond are acres of lawn and picnic areas. Facilities include softball fields, volleyball courts, an equestrian staging area and scads of picnic areas for single families or large groups up to 500 people. A typical group site includes 20 picnic tables, a barbecue pit and electricity (a fee is charged for group sites and must be reserved in advance. Visit www.co.monterey.ca.us/parks/toro.html for details).
The park’s trail map is an embarrassment that gives no mileage figures between trail junctions or distances of possible loops. There isn’t even a scale of miles to help gauge distance. Is this hike three miles or eight miles? It would be nice to know. There are also no contour lines or any indication of the gradient – up or down – of any trail. I was lucky. I had a guide.
Dave is a great hiking companion whose company I have enjoyed on the trail for many years. In 1993, we walked the John Muir Trail, spending three weeks together putting one foot in front of the other – all day, everyday.
We have solved the world’s problems, and each other’s, many times.
Walking past the developed portion of the park, we picked up Ollason Trail and entered a forest of oaks and buckeyes. Thick fog cloaked our morning in muffled stillness like a landscape covered in new fallen snow. Lichen – what people mistakenly call Spanish moss – hung in profusion from tree branches adding to the eerie quiet. In the occasional grassy opening, Dave mentioned how densely packed the wildflowers had been just weeks before.
As we began to climb out of the valley, the landscape opened into California’s more familiar open grasslands and oaks. Still in the fog, we climbed toward Ollason Peak when finally we could see the fog’s edge, then the full expanse of the view. We had climbed above nearly all our surroundings.
The view south toward Carmel Valley was a beautiful succession of empty mountain folds. Looking north, we could see across much of the Salinas Valley. We stood for awhile at the fog’s edge, captivated by the dance of its receding edge against the hills.
We returned from Ollason Peak along Coyote Spring Trail and Toyon Trail through chaparral and hazy, sun-washed views to the north. Our loop was perhaps six or seven miles. There are longer and shorter options to match all hiking appetites.
Dave is right. Toro Park is special not just for hikers, but also for folks with a bag of charcoal briquets, a stack of burgers and a tub of potato salad.
Ron Erskine is an outdoors columnist. His column appears every Sunday online at www.freelancenews.com. You can reach him at: ro********@ms*.com
