Ventana Wilderness Forums

Date Hiked: April 18, 2014
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

14 of us Hiked from Salmon Creek Trailhead on Hwy 1 to Dutra Flat. The weather was perfect. Lots of flowers, including Iris, Hounds Tongue, California Buttercups, Shooting Stars and more.

The trail from Spruce Creek Junction is passable. As the trail is easy to follow but lots of poison oak encroaching on the trail for the first mile up this trail. Once at the switchback poison oak decreases, But still lots of encroaching brush. From the saddle to Dutra Flat the green hills were a delight to traverse.

There were a total of four trees across the trail. Two before the Spruce Creek slide area. All were easy to step over. Two after the Spruce Creek Slide and before the switchbacks. these you had to duck under. Again relatively easy on this day.

We had a pleasant lunch at Dutra Flat under the shade of many trees.

Date Hiked: March 8, 2014
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

SECTION HIKED: FROM JUNCTION OF SALMON CREEK TRAIL TO DUTRA FLAT CAMP [with continuation on Murray Mine Road and beyond to Mount Mars]

Section: Salmon Creek Trail to Spruce/Dutra Saddle: Clear. Spruce Creek is flowing nicely now (compared to October when it was bone dry); increased moisture has translated into increased, aggressive PO; there's an 8" or so madrone down about 1/2 mile from the top, we cut the branches that were blocking the way so it's now an easy stepover of the trunk:
The grass in the Dutra drainage is finally turning green as shown in this picture taken at the saddle:
Section: Saddle to Dutra Flat Camp: Wilderness Freeway

Water was flowing from the pipe at Dutra Flat:
I spotted some PO growing in a holly bush in the middle of camp:
We headed out on the Murray Mine Road and found that Dutra Creek was flowing at the crossing:
The old outhouse along the Murray Mine Road has deteriorated further and will not be of much use:
Once we got up onto the coastal ridge, the view was spectacular:
We got to the summit of Mount Mars and enjoyed the inland views towards the South Coast Ridge:
As always, the view to the ocean from the face of Mount Mars was unbeatable:
We reluctantly headed down the face of Mount Mars to the end of a great dayhike. The face was very green, making for much easier walking on the very steep incline:

gfelsman wrote:Date Hiked: September 28, 2013
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Hiked this trail on Saturday, the weather was great, very few bugs on our trip to Dutra Flat and back.

The trail is fair shape and easy to follow, with encroaching brush and a couple of downed trees near Spruce Creek. The one tree that used to hang over the trail about 1/10th mile past the Salmon Creek Junction has been cleared. Thanks to the folks that removed this tree. Still a few trees left, but a much nicer hike.

Check out the link in my post below, it has video of me clearing those trees. Fun physical challenge. Glad somebody noticed.

Date Hiked: September 28, 2013
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Hiked this trail on Saturday, the weather was great, very few bugs on our trip to Dutra Flat and back.

The trail is fair shape and easy to follow, with encroaching brush and a couple of downed trees near Spruce Creek. The one tree that used to hang over the trail about 1/10th mile past the Salmon Creek Junction has been cleared. Thanks to the folks that removed this tree. Still a few trees left, but a much nicer hike.

Dutra Flat Camp itself was relatively clean except for the trash piled in the fire pit and two full fuel canisters we found at the camp. We packed all the trash and fuel canisters out.

Water at Dutra Flat is now questionable. The cattle trough was full when we were there, but the pipe filing the tank was barely dripping. maybe one drip every 3-5 seconds.

Hope it rains soon.

Date Hiked: June 6, 2013
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

We set out from Salmon Creek and the trail was nice and clear until the turn off to Spruce Creek Trail. Noticed a few slides, but footing was solid. Very overgrown with poison oak until we hit the flats, however, trail was defined. 2 fallen trees in this section of path. Path disappeared after first cowboy gate, at first clearing (beginning of the flats). The "trail" isn't defined at all in places from the flats onwards. Often, my group would have to explore, then backtrack a mile or so to try and find different "path". Frustrating. Very little trend. Finally made it to Dutra Flat Camp. The site is very nice. Attempted to find Turkey Springs/Dutra Creek but failed horribly. Trail is nearly impossible to find and keep, mostly random cow paths that lead to dead ends. Lots of poison oak along the way. Make sure you

Date Hiked: June 14, 2013
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

Hiked solo in to Dutra Flat Camp on a last minute whim. I'd never been before, but have read about it here. I've been to Spruce a bunch, and was surprised how dense the vegetation became. I've read about the old slide area, and footing was a little dicey. There were two major trail obstacles I encountered on my way up, I cleared them both on the way down. I put a detailed trip report https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/sho ... hp?t=75002 over at Hammock Forums if anyone is interested.

Date Hiked: June 19, 2013
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

For the trail south/east of Dutra Camp to San Carpoforo Camp

Amid the "clear/passable" trail reports (often for the trail north/west of Dutra Camp), I'm putting this "difficult" report to warn hikers unfamiliar with this trail that the tread often disappears in the grassy sections, so previous experience or good map reading skills or a GPS (or being lucky) is necessary to negotiate those areas. Intersecting the San Carpoforo trail from off-trail near the old Dutra homestead (not the Dutra campsite), neither Paul Danielson or myself could see any indication of where the "trail" was and had to rely upon experience (for him) and a GPS having a trail track (for me) to continue from the homestead meadow to higher terrain, where tread then appeared.

Date Hiked: April 20, 2013
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

We hike up the Salmon Creek Trail to the Dutra Camp, well actually we didn't make it all the way to the camp. Salmon Creek Trail is a wilderness freeway. Very nice to hike on. the Spruce Trail has a few fallen trees, nothing too difficult to get over, and there is the usual brush and poison oak. The tread was lost in meadow but by looking ahead you can find your way. We encounter Steve Benoit and Esperanza, from the Ventana Sierra Club,leading a group of 4 backpackers making a loop ending up at Ragged Point. The wild flowers were abundant, the weather was beautiful. this was a perfect hike. Hikers: Virginia Jensen, Judy West, Claudia Anderson, Wanda McDonnald

Date Hiked: April 6, 2013
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)

1. Section from Salmon Creek Trail Junction to Spruce/Dutra Saddle: Clear, a couple of stepovers, minor brush encroachment (including PO). The historic slide (with the nasty uphill diversion) that's about halfway up this section remains; it would be a lot of work to fix this, but that's a project that should really be done sometime.

2. Section from Saddle to Dutra Flat Camp: Wilderness Freeway. There is much erosion on the sidehill parts of this section, and due to cow activity there are sometimes several parallel sidehill tracks, but they always reconverge. The bog crossing just before Dutra Flat camp is the boggiest I've ever seen it, such that I was unable to cross without actually sinking in at a few spots. The pipe was flowing above Dutra Flat camp, and I had some (untreated) water from the pipe, which tasted quite refreshing and I've had no bad consequences. There was a group of cows grazing out on the first big meadow a few hundred yards past camp. Nobody was camped at Dutra Flat, but on the way out I came across a solo backpacker headed in who was going to stay at either Dutra Flat or Turkey Springs.

Date Hiked: March 12, 2013
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)


san carpoforo trail from dutra flat campground to end of trail at salmon creek trail junction.
dutra flat campground is fenced off but accessible to keep livestock out. water is available just across from the camp in a trough behind another fence. the trail out of here initially has some muddy cow crossings. multiple cow paths can make keeping on the right trail tricky. once you come out of the dutra creek and into the spruce creek watershed, the trail is much easier to follow as it steeply winds down to salmon creek. a few steep narrow sections exist on this section where the trail has almost washed off the ridge.