Natural Bridges Day Use Area is not to be confused with Natural Bridges State Beach (which is an excellent beach, by the way). This particular Natural Bridges is located in Vallecito, California and features a river running through a cave that is easily accessible for wading, swimming and a little bit of tubing.
My sister and I visited the cave August 4, 2015 and you can see that there isn't a whole lot of greenery like you might see during the spring or winter. Regardless, this is still an awesome cave. I always thought cool underground caves like this with rivers flowing through them only existed in far-off, exotic places, but I was excited to find out we had one here in California's Gold Country!
On the way to this cave, we stopped in a quaint little town called Copperopolis. My sister informed me that the Shell Gas Station there had the nicest bathroom she had ever visited at a gas station. So if after a long ride you've got to go, here is a good place to stop! They also have a really neat bell tower that chimes on the hour and half hour as well.
We actually stopped at Moaning Cavern first, because we didn't want to be all wet and cold walking down into that cavern. Check out my post on Moaning Cavern for more information on it. Natural Bridges is literally like a 5 minute drive away from Moaning Cavern, just a little bit further down the road, so it makes visiting both of these places in one day a great option.
Check out the video that I took below for an outside look of the cave:
The hike itself is not that difficult; it's a 0.75 mile hike DOWN to the river, so you will have to walk UP the trail to leave the area. The hike is about 2 miles in total length, roundtrip. The trail is very rocky, so be careful while walking. It can be hot on this trail, so I'd bring extra water as there is not any drinking water in this area. Plus, playing in the river, while refreshing, can make a person thirsty. The water itself felt surprisingly nice. I thought it would be unbearably cold, but it's just cool. We got in about to mid-thigh and it felt great. For those who are planning on getting all the way wet, it might be a bit cooler than you'd expect, though.
Here are some photos of walking down the trail to the river:
You can see they have some picnic tables set up in the area, so you might pack a lunch and eat it near the river. There are also lots of blackberry bushes, too! Most of them were not quite ripe while we were here, but we found a few and sampled them. They were great! Sources we read online said there were also many poison oak plants, but we never saw any.
I recommend taking an old pair of sneakers or some real water shoes for walking around. Flip flops or slides will make walking in the water tricky and dangerous, especially as the rocks are quite mossy and slippery. Explore the area around the cave before getting wet!
The inside of the cave is pretty awesome. It stays fairly shallow until you hit the back of the cavern where it narrows a bit more. We had actually bought a blow up raft to take in the cave, but we decided against it as we were unsure if there would even be enough water to float the raft on. There was, but you have to walk back a ways before it gets deep enough.
If you look carefully, you can see light shining through from the other side. You can swim all the way through the cavern and emerge out on the other side. We didn't do this, but you can find pictures online and more details in the link I provided below.
Here is a video of the inside of the cavern. My poor sister didn't know I was recording at first :)
IMPORTANT NOTE: We do NOT recommend taking the short cut AT ALL. The link I mentioned below where we got our initial information makes the "short cut" seem like a pleasant alternative. It is not. We walked down the regular trail and decided to take the short cut on the way out. Big Mistake. It was exhausting, because the first 3/4 are all up steep hill, with a tiny trail that is often overgrown with sharp plants and low hanging trees. The trail appears to never end. That's probably because it's a half mile (0.5 miles) long. You really don't save enough distance on this trail to make it worth walking on AT ALL unless you enjoy being a mountain goat. And walking down this trail would be probably even harder than going up; the threat of slipping and falling are much greater going down steep hills than up.
So, you have been warned. Stick to the main trail. Here are the few photos I managed in between gasping for air as I walked up the trail (a side note, if you don't visit the Moaning Cavern before this and have not walked up/down 235 stairs, walking up this steep short cut might not be as hard. But for me, after having done that, it was hard):
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about this adventure, please ask!
The link below is the initial website we used to find out how to get to this place, how long the hike is, and what kind of hike. You might find it useful, too!
http://www.hikespeak.com/trails/upper-natural-bridge-hike-calaveras-county/
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