North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve Hike with the Fam

Another free Saturday meant another fun new hike to check out. We headed to North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve just past Oroville. This hike is neat because the terrain is different from a lot of the other hikes we've been on recently. It is more rocky and we hiked to two neat waterfalls.

From Davis, the drive was about an hour and a half. We got there in the afternoon around 1pm and there were already many cars in the parking lot. The most cars we've seen in a parking lot in a while for a hike. There are lots of bathroom porta potty's in case you needed to use the facilities. You can tell it's a popular hike with the amount of porta potty's they had.

The Reserve's welcome sign. This is the second time where I've seen the "Take only memories... leave only footprints." I like that line. 

The hike starts out nice and flat. You can see that there are lots of people around. However, it is so open and big, that it never actually really got crowded for us.

Check out the rocky terrain.

There were these vernal pools and streams along the trail. Good thing the kiddos hiking boots are waterproof. ;) From what I understand the winter and spring rain soaks into the ground and with basalt impermeable to water, it creates these seasonal streams and waterfalls. 

 It is such a beautiful area.

We hiked down to Hallow Falls first. It is only about .9 miles to Hollow falls from the trailhead. We took a nice break here and enjoyed the falls.

The kiddos enjoyed climbing the rock walls.

From Hollow Falls, we headed towards Phantom Falls. Below is a map of the reserve. Hubby led the way and we cut up across creating the shortest route possible.

Photo credit: http://www.chicohiking.org/Individual-Hike-Pages/Valley-and-Foothill/Phantom-Falls.htm

We came across some nice wildflowers. In early spring when the flowers start to bloom, North Table mountain is a popular place to view wildflowers.

 Some cool views as we got closer to Phantom Falls.

At Phantom Falls. Not much water gushing at this time and pretty soon it will be gone, hence the name phantom falls. It's a seasonal waterfall and disappears during the dry season. We took a nice break here and enjoyed the views before heading back.

Heading back to the trailhead.

We ended up doing about 5 miles total of hiking. It was a great afternoon of rocks, streams, and waterfalls. I definitely recommend this one but you gotta do it in the spring or you probably won't see any of the falls. The flowers and greens are a plus too! 

The hike definitely deserved a jump pic!

Happy hiking!