Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area

The drive is an adventure in itself. The road twists and turns. The pavement ends halfway but the road isn't bad. Beautiful views. Had a clean working bathroom so that was a wonderful plus. Nice walk. Bring a jacket because you are way up there.

Right at the top of the Polipoli road /track is the cabin. From there start a miriad of trails through the forest at 6400 ft. We walked a four hour trail through unbelievably beautiful terrain and vegetation. Not well marked but posted at each intersection with another trail so take a foto of the map at the start and a good GPS map and you are good to go. Needless to say there is zero mobile signal so download everything you need well in advance!

Beautiful park with some amazing trails. Be aware that 4 wheel drive is required to drive to this park and that many rental companies will not allow you to, so I recommend checking with whoever you rent from first if you plan to try to go up. This park has a single toilet and a couple of covered sitting areas for facilities. There are no grills or water, so if you plan on staying the night make sure that you bring food that you don't have to cook or have a propane cooker. It also gets pretty cold up there at night. We stayed the night in June and it was in the low 50s when we woke up, so make sure you bring clothes and bedding to keep you warm because you will have a bad time trying to sleep otherwise.

This is incredible. We found this somewhat inadvertently. I was curious for 'off road trails' as we ended up renting a Jeep instead of a car. The road up starts paved and is steep but fun, with glorious views of the isthmus. As you ascend through the clouds, the pavement ends and it literally feels like you're driving thru the Adirondacks. Pines, dirt road, winding mountain side.. buuuut then unlike the 'dacks, this place has height. I consider myself a reasonably experienced driver, and am aware of what a rental Wrangler JL on all-seasons is capable of. We popped it into 4wd for one section of about 60ft, primarily to not roost the tires into the already-trenched trail. No biggie tho. Above/beyond a point, things are not marked. The main trail gate beyond one section was closed, but we to

Beautiful. Cloudy while we were there, but the loop hike still had some good views and was very refreshing. We took the Polipoli trail around and turned at the Tie trail. Overall not too hard, make sure to bring water though.