South Yuba River State Park

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION

Snowmelt carves blue-green pools into the granite bedrock of the South Yuba River canyon, surrounded by ponderosa pine and canyon oak. The water is cold and clear, the canyon is quiet, and the whole experience, granite, pine, river sound, has a restorative quality that earns the drive out from Nevada City. Trails follow the river through the canyon at a level grade, and in summer the swimming holes fill with locals who have been coming to the same rocks for generations.

OPERATOR STORY

South Yuba River State Park is managed by California State Parks and protects 20 miles of the South Yuba River canyon in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The park preserves one of the most accessible river canyon environments in the northern Sierra, and its Independence Trail, built along an 1860s mining ditch, was the first wheelchair-accessible wilderness trail constructed in the United States.