South Grove and Big Tree Creek Loop is a 16.9 kilometer lightly trafficked loop trail located near Arnold, California that features a river and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from April until November.
| 5 |  | |
| 4 | | |
| 3 | | |
| 2 | | |
| 1 | |
November 20, 2021It was all good until last 1/3 of the trail, when the paved portion became off trail. We wanted to go towards the digital map but it was off the designated portion, so we trekked through the woods, which was quite annoying but kinda fun adventure. We eventually made it back to designated trail.
September 19, 2021Loops fine but the map is off. Trail isn’t well used and is very loose and rocky. Conditioning good not super fun
June 3, 2021Does not loop, had to turn around and go back at about 7.5 miles in
May 31, 2021Great place
May 29, 2021Cannot complete trail as shown in app. The trail leading off the forest road on the eastern side of the loop doesn't seem to exist any longer. Searched pretty thoroughly from both sides with no luck and was forced to back track. The forest road was quiet, but not too exciting. I'd take another trail in the area.
May 23, 2021Map is off. Its almost 13 miles. Someone said they trekked through bush to get back on track according to the map and going off that we saw the trail was curving the right way and decided to trust that it would reconnect with the map at some point and it did. That happened a couple of times but the most concerning was at the northeastern curve when the map showed we were going in completely the wrong direction when in reality we never diverted from the obvious road track. There were also a couple of trail signs that helped at the 2 intersections. Aside from the downloaded map inaccuracies it was a nice hike. Lots of views and incline/declines. We did see bear evidence though so be aware. And some very nice ravens and steller’s jays. $10 fee to enter big tree state park.
September 26, 2020The GPS of the app and the layout of the fire road is off slightly. We ended up off road by trying to follow the GPS, but really should have stayed on the fire road. It's longer than 10.5 and not that spectacular of views. Good conditioning trail.
August 23, 2020This hike is definitely only for conditioning purposes. Views , not much to see. Very rocky , loose gravel and a great deal of the trail burnt down. Trail is very misleading in the upper portion of the loop. We ended up extending hike earlier on and went into view the calaveras south grove trail which did have some cool massive trees and some tree caves in which you can be a little adventurous and walk through them.
August 7, 2020
First to ReviewFirst this trail is past Arnold off hwy4 not near Long Barn which is off hwy108. This trail is not a loop - we tried and tried to find the loop but couldn’t , so we reached 7 miles in following the fire road and had to turn back the same way we came ... lots of up and down hills w close to 2,000 feet of elevation gain. The road is beautiful near Beaver creek for about 2 miles from the start then it passes burned out areas, areas w loose rocks and gravel , areas w pieces of wood on the path ... I’d recommend hiking the south grove trail instead which crosses the fire road at some point
November 20, 2021October 15, 2021July 27, 2021June 23, 2021June 13, 2021June 2, 2021May 31, 2021May 28, 2021May 26, 2021May 15, 2021October 23, 2020July 25, 2020July 25, 2020July 20, 2019June 21, 2019November 2, 2017September 5, 2010June 30, 2009
