Quick Info:
Distance – 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain – 509 ft
Difficulty – Easy to Moderate
Duration Estimate – 2 hours
Parking/Permit Fees – $7 if you park at Spring Lake Regional Park, but you can park for free at Howarth Park or along Montgomery Drive before turning onto Channel Drive and have a bit of a longer hike.
Hike Route – Out and Back from Spring Lake to Lake Ilsanjo using Canyon Trail and Spring Creek Trail.
The Hike:
It was a beautiful sunny and warm day so Damian and I wanted to get a hike in, but because I was feeling a bit off I wanted something that was shorter and easier and this hike was perfect for that.
Most of this hike goes along a small creek and in the Spring Lake Regional Park section there is a trail on either side of the creek. We followed the smaller trail on the east side of the creek, which had less bicyclists and people. Along this trail we found a small pond with hundreds of tadpoles and enjoyed stopping to watch them zoom around.
About the first half of the way out is pretty flat. Once we got into the woods the trail started to go gently uphill.
It’s in this area that we saw a couple of turkeys, which we had heard calls from for some of the hike.
There is a point where you cross a creek and the uphill gets much steeper, but from there it’s not far to the end at Lake Ilsanjo.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the hike, and as I said above it was perfect for exactly what I wanted that day. Listening to the creek for most of the hike was beautiful and so were the trees. There were a lot of bird sounds and wildflowers blooming, including California Golden Poppies which are one of my favorites. There are multiple picnic tables at the lake and along the way, which we noted for a possible future picnic.
The only thing that I didn’t like about this trail was that there were a lot of bicyclists, and this was on a weekday so I can’t imagine how busy it is on a weekend. This is enough to make it a hike that we probably won’t do often, because I prefer less busy trails.
What are some of your favorite qualities on a hike/hiking trail and some of your least favorite?
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