Horse Pasture Trail

[Firefly]

Date Hiked: May 3, 2019
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

I hiked this trail from the junction with the Tassajara cutoff trail to Marble Peak trail. I was concerned based on previous reports that the trail would be hard to follow. This is not the case. Tread is evident throughout and there is no likelihood of going off path. I am labelling it difficult only because of the extraordinary amount of poison oak in the middle section of this trail, where is crosses a shallow creek at about 10 times. There is a lot of poison oak all over the Ventana, but this trail is special. Even if you have mastered the game of Don't Touch the Vegetation, there is really no way to avoid doing so on this trail. Decide to go this way only if you know you are not allergic to poison oak, or you have a solid plan for how to clean yourself afterwards.

This trail is the most convenient way to get from Arroyo Seco parking lot to Tassajara. Maybe if more people use it, the path will become wider and easier to navigate.

[David Hirsch]

Date Hiked: October 29, 2018
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)

From Tassajara Creek heading north, the first two miles of trail are clear; the third mile is difficult but can be followed (many sections of tread slumps, deadfalls and heavy brush).
After the third mile, the trail is clear again. No water above Tassajara Creek.

[jboning]

Date Hiked: June 17, 2018
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

I hiked this southward from the Tassajara Cutoff to the Marble Peak trail. The "closed" sign from the previous report appears to be gone, but the middle section of the trail is as described--encroaching branches, deadfalls, tread washing away in spots. The trail was easy to identify but took some effort to follow! The last mile and a half or so down into Marble Peak trail was much better.

I didn't find any water at Quail Spring. Blackberry Creek had a few pools, and a trickle of running water visible in some spots.

[hydrologic]

Date Hiked: November 25, 2017
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Horse Pasture Trail is 4.6 miles long. The first 2~ miles of Horse Pasture Trail are some of the nicest, most amazingly perfect miles in Big Sur period! The work that was done recently is immaculate. The tread is level and like a highway. There are ZERO branches encroaching. Pure pleasure. Then things change quickly. The tread starts slumping and the branches get very pokey. Once you reach Tassajara Cutoff there is a sign that says Horse Pasture Trail is closed southbound. The trail stays about in the same crappy condition until you reach the saddle at the Flag Rock trail turnoff. From there to Tassajara road the trail is pretty great. We plan on hitting that really bad one mile section and doing some major clearing in the coming few weeks.

[Hillary]

Date Hiked: July 2, 2016
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

Did a trail run from Arroyo Seco to Tassajara Cutoff. Horse Pasture Trail has lots of encroachment and overgrowth to duck under, but easy to keep the trail. Initial creek crossing is a piece of cake and plenty of water flowing. Blackberry was dry. There was water flowing at mile 1.3 that isn't on the map. I could hear it first so I stopped and sought it out. The trail is about 30 feet above a pool of water that has water running into it and trickling out of it. I didn't take the time to figure out how to get down to it (I was packing plenty of water). With enough motivation it would probably be something you could get down to. Not a drop at Quail Spring. Several areas of the trail have eroded and footing is lose.

Weather started foggy ~60' and heated up to about 85' by mid-day, unusual for July, but still had the flies out by 11:00. Breeze picked up around 1:00 which helped with the flies. Lots and lots and lots of poison oak, glad for a place to take a dip and wash it off before climbing back in the car. Arroyo Seco river was a zoo with the busy weekend, but didn't see a single person all day past the footbridge.

[brienzo]

Date Hiked: April 21, 2016
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

From the ridge south to the Tassajara Creek crossing, the trail is overgrown both in brushy and in grassy areas. It is, however, quite passable and easy enough to follow, with not many deadfalls, if you don't mind pushing through some brush. Poison oak is abundant and I picked up three ticks, although only one bit.

[jack_glendening]

Date Hiked: December 30, 2015
General Condition: Passable (Some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

This is for the section from the Tassajara Cutoff Trail to the southern trailhead at Marble Peak Trail.

This section is notably rougher than the section north of it. Tread was apparent (except for a switchback which I missed, following the tread of others who had missed it - I moved a large branch over to block it) but slumped in places. Most notable was the excellent tread along the exposed slope south of Tassajara Cutoff, which often gets eroded. In a few places ceanothus branches extended into the trail. I did not find any water in "Blackberry Creek".

Jack

[jack_glendening]

Date Hiked: December 30, 2015
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)

This is for the section from the north trailhead at Tassajara Road to the intersection with the Tassajara Cutoff Trail.

Someone has been working on this trail! I found a pool and trickle of water at "Horse Pasture Spring" but no water at "Quail Spring" (despite looking both above and below the trail - all I found was one damp rock)

Jack

[js_radford]

Date Hiked: June 2, 2014
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)

From Tassajara Cutoff to Willow Creek: it is quite easy to follow. There are a few deadfalls but none to cause more than a gentle duck under or step over. One needs to push through a little brush but nothing serious; most of section is comfortably clear. However, Deerweed and such are pushing hikers and thus tread downslope and there is a fair bit of work needed doing to stop that. Trail section is dry until near Willow Creek at which point water is not needed.

[Editor's note: presumably the writer means to say "Tassajara Creek," since the Horsepasture Trail does not go to Willow Creek. The Horsepasture Trail starts on Tassajara Road, and crosses Tassajara Creek just before ending at the Marble Peak Trail.]

To Editor: I really did mean, correctly, Willow Creek. I've added "From" above. That should make it more obvious that I was talking about Horse Pasture Trail, which never comes close to Tassajara Creek.

[Editor's response: please review any map of the area which will clearly show the confluence of Tassajara Creek and Willow Creek. Downstream from that confluence the name of the creek is Tassajara Creek. A mile to the east, the Horsepasture Trail crosses Tassajara Creek. For more on naming conventions, where a stream below a confluence retains the name of the larger of the two streams: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/tributary/?ar_a=1

To Editor: OK. OK You are right, the by far longer creek is Tassajara. But it has confused not just me but many others (http://cacreeks.com/ and http://www.americanwhitewater.org/ to name two) that a nice straight canyon should be named by what "feels" like a side stream. Every one of the 15 or so times I have hiked towards Strawberry Camp, I have had the strongest feeling that Tassajara Creek, which just appears out of a side canyon, was just a side stream/tributary. The mapping does not help much because one sees a straight stream named "Willow Creek Creek". The topo map should have continued the name "Tassajara" after the junction and/or "Willow Creek" should have been named "Willow Cr.". The problem for me is that the Tassajara Creek CANYON is a tributary CANYON, in relative size at the junction, to the main CANYON which starts with Willow Creek. At least the Tassajara side canyon seems obviously smaller to me when I am walking it.

[Betsy M]

Date Hiked: September 8, 2013
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)

Section: Tassajara Road to Tassajara Cutoff Trail

This section is a true wilderness freeway, with two small exceptions. There is a small tree to duck under near the top of the first ridge; and there is an oak that requires scrambling under, out near the Cutoff Trail. But other than that, the brush is clipped back, and tread is a pleasure to hike on. There is a tiny flow of water in the drainage past the Horsepasture, bees were crawling around, getting minerals. But it would be difficult to fill a water bottle here.