2023-11-30 37 -122

Location

Right on Devil's Slide on the Pacific coast.

Participants

calymsis

Plans

BART to Daly City, 110 bus to Pacifica, 117 bus one stop to Devil's Slide. There's trails marked on Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps here, and there's some Google reviews, so it's likely I'll be able to hike up the hill to the point.

Expedition

Getting to Devil's Slide went smoothly, but right after I got off the bus I found that the road I'd been planning on walking up had a sign that said Authorized Personnel Only. Encouraged by the Google reviews, though, I walked down Highway 1 a little bit to the next road which looked like it connected, and this one had no such sign. In fact, there was a "Keep our parks clean" sign, and a gap by the gate clearly for people to walk through. So, I started down the trail. Along the way I encountered some kind of heavily graffiti'd abandoned building, but also some clear signs of trail maintenance and mountain bikers. As I got higher, I could see that the reason for the restricted access sign earlier was a Caltrans maintenance facility that the other road went nearby to.

Eventually, I reached the point on the trail closest to the point, so I left it there. The bushwhacking was considerably better than the last point I reached, since the brush was significantly less dense and closer to the ground. There were still a few difficult places in a drainage, but altogether not too bad. Ultimately I reached the point pretty high on the ridge, near some power lines. After a bit of dancing around to find the exact point, I took some photos. There were really nice views of the ocean and the nearby coastal communities from up there.

I went back down more directly, and not via the shrubby drainage, and encountered some bicyclers on the way down. The bus was about half an hour late, though, so I could have spent more time up in the trails instead of hurrying down as I did. Oh well.

Photos

Bus stop, looking towards Devil's Slide Tunnels
The gate to the trails
Abandoned building off the trails
Some fun decoration along the trail
Can't stay on the trail forever
Pretty brushy up to the point (a bit beyond the power lines)
Looking south along the coast from the point. You can see the Caltrans maintenance facility to the left and the ruins of the triangulation station on the right.
Looking north from a bit lower
Proof