Date Hiked: July 2, 2026
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

I hiked these trails as part of a loop in the Ventana wilderness, connecting the Big Sur River and Carmel River watersheds. Lime Point (parking) – Church Creek Trail – Pine Ridge Trail – Big Sur Trail – South Fork Trail – Marble Peak Trail – Tony Trail – Tassajara Road – Church Creek Trail – Lime Point

Church Creek Trail from the trailhead on Tassajara road until Wildcat Camp: Wilderness Freeway. Clearly defined tread, no issues. Wildcat Camp is cozy and has water.
Lime Point use trail: Wilderness Freeway. Short and in excellent shape. Provides easy access from the road to Wildcat Camp and Church Creek Trail.
Church Creek Trail from Wildcat Camp until Church Ranch road: Clear. Easy to follow and well defined, great views across the valley and passing interesting rock formations. Recent work on the trail is evident and even if the tread is lighter in a few sections there is never a doubt where the trail actually is. The biggest nuisance this time of the year were those spikey plant seeds that immediately attach to skin and clothing.
Church Creek Trail from Church Ranch road until and of Church Ranch section: Wilderness Freeway. No problem crossing Church Ranch, just keep walking along the creek direction, and straight past the main residence.
Church Creek Trail from Church Ranch to Church Creek Divide: Clear. Tall grass and slight overgrowth, tread is evident.

Date Hiked: June 20, 2025
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

A Wonderful trail. From the Divide all the way down to where you leave Church ranch Road, It's basically wilderness freeway. A tremendous amount of work put into brushing and tread work.
The second half is clear and much great work there as well. Be sure to wear long pants, as the annoying stick seed is everywhere. There is a decent flow at Wildcat camp creek (and better flow from the creeklet abpout 2 miles before). Only hiccup on this section is a complex tree trunk across the trail about a mile before the wind caves. I tried to go under and my pack got stuck. So I went over. not a big deal.
Thank you VWA Trail Crew. Very impressive work! We really appreciate it

Date Hiked: April 19, 2025
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

trail from Church Creek divide to Church Ranch wilderness freeway. Below ranch the trail is clear w occ brush easily pushed through, tread evident with good flagging through meadows. Took lime point usetrail back up to Tassajara Rd which was in excellent shape. Great Indian Paintbrush through rock formations.

Thanks to all who continue the great trail work in the wilderness!

Date Hiked: October 29, 2024
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and/or well maintained)

The wilderness alliance's trail work definitely shows. Trail is wide open, exceptionally easy to follow. I wore shorts and didn't regret it. Area covered - from Pine Ridge Trail to the Wildcat Camp

Date Hiked: May 12, 2024
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and/or well maintained)

Section: Tassajara Road to the wind caves: Wilderness Freeway

Section: Wind Caves to Church Ranch Driveway: Passable

Section: Church Ranch to Church Creek Divide: Wilderness Freeway

Section: Wildcat Camp: we dug up the grill and moved it away from Wildcat Creek. Constructed a fire ring in front of it. We cleared out enough space for two tents: one right beside the grill, a second just uphill on a flat area (not shown in the photos)

VWA volunteer trail crews worked from Tassajara Road up to the wind caves in April, 2024. This is now a wilderness freeway. Beyond the wind caves there are several brushy sections until you get past the meadow. But we cleared all but a few trees that are easy to get past. From the meadow section to the Ranch driveway, the trail is clear though the tread needs work. We repaired two slip outs in this section by constructing rock retaining walls and cutting back into the hillside.

From the Ranch heading up towards Church Creek Divide, the trail starts out in open meadows and is not too difficult to follow. Beyond the open meadow areas, the encroaching ceanothus, yerba santa, and poison oak bushes have been cleared back. In several locations we reworked the tread so you won't be dipping down and climbing back up as you make your way to the Divide. We cleared all the trees that have fallen, some years ago, and some in the February windstorms.

Date Hiked: September 30, 2023
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

I hiked from the southern intersection where the trail meets with Tassajara road, to the Mesa. A bit overgrown, but nothing too bad. LOTS of poison oak, definitely recommend long pants. Saw a few tarantulas on the trail, pretty cool!

Wildcat camp isn't really much of a camp, just a log and a small rock fire ring and an old/broken Forest Service stove; there's not even enough room to pitch a 1 person tent. I supposes one or two people could "cowboy camp" there, but you would be butted up to the rock fire ring. Just posting this info for anyone planning on backpacking on this trail who has not been here before... I wouldn't plan on camping at Wildcat unless it was absolutely necessary.

There was still plenty water flowing in the stream beside it, thanks to the wet winter.

Date Hiked: May 22, 2023
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

Section: Tassajara Road to the wind caves: Wilderness Freeway

Section: Wind Caves to Church Ranch Driveway: Passable

Section: Church Ranch to Church Creek Divide: Difficult for about a mile, until the last 0.2 miles before the Divide

VWA volunteer trail crews worked from Tassajara Road up to the wind caves. Plenty of ceanothus branches were leaning into the trail making progress difficult. Beyond the wind caves there are several fallen trees and more brushy sections.

From the Ranch heading up towards Church Creek Divide, the trail starts out in open meadows and is not too difficult to follow. Once you start getting into the brushy sections, where numerous trees have fallen in the brush, progress is difficult. VWA volunteer trail crew workers cleared brush and trees in the last 0.2 mile section leading up to the Divide.

Thanks for the heads up on trail conditions. Did you access Church Creek by way of China Camp? If so, how is Tassajara Rd looking?

[ED: Tasssajara Road is in great shape. Watch for a slip out just before China Camp.]

Date Hiked: April 21, 2023
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

Awful. The first half mile down from Church Creek Divide is as much as I did. It was badly overgrown with ceanothus and had a few difficult deadfalls. If you make it to that perennial side stream in the little gully, I think you can make it to Cave Ranch without much more bushwhacking. We made it a little easier with some clipping. Pine Ridge Trail is perfect.

Date Hiked: April 13, 2021
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Section: Pine Ridge Trail to the Church Creek Use Camp – Passable

This is a mighty short trail segment – about a half mile – so there’s not much to say. Some open trail, some easy brush and deadfall maneuvering.

I went down to seek out the Church Creek Use Camp shown on https://bigsurtrailmap.net/. The camp is not on the trail, but rather 100-150 feet to the side (down the hill). Jack’s GPS location matches my GPS location within a few 10’s of feet. His trail position almost exactly matches what I logged. However, the underlying topo is off. The river is closer to the camp than the map suggests. As for the camp itself, there’s not much there: a long-unused fire ring, a not-very-big and not-very-useful log to sit on, and, no obvious good bedsite. There was water in the creek when I came though, although not that much. I wouldn’t count on it being there long as we move into the dry season. Probably all for the best that nature is reclaiming this spot.