Sugar Bowl - Redwood Creek Loop is a 6.5 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Stony Creek Village, California that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from March until October.
Kings Canyon National Park charges a fee to enter. Fees are $35 per vehicle or $30 per motorcycle. If you are entering on foot or bike the fee is $20 per person. You can also purchase a park specific annual pass for $70.
November 29, 2020awesome trail amazing workout and lots of fun bike riding
November 27, 2020Just did this loop over the Thanksgiving week with my family. Youngest 8 years old. Great hike with amazing views. Starting counterclockwise we went downhill into a meadow meadow of huge trees, some snow patches and started a switch back incline with amazing views of the park to a top ridge back down towards the parking lot. Not easy for the little one, but we all made it in around 3 1/2 hours including a stop for lunch.
October 18, 2020
September 28, 2020Trail not well maintained. Lots of vegetation will hit you in the arms, legs and face, luckily only going downhill. But really nice views I would do it again
September 17, 2020Was there today . Snowing ash Smokey as hell . Stunning
September 7, 2020Pretty, chill hike if you're in shape. I did the hart/Goliath loop and then took sugar bowl to finish off with 9 miles in 4 hours. Heat and lots of water in the pack slowed me down but there was a lot of shade especially on the hart/Goliath portion. Nice view of some mountains in the sugar bowl portion as the other hike is in the woods the whole time (at least for the first 4.5mi). Was cool to see the redwoods and see some creeks along the way.
August 17, 2020August 14, 2020No bears. Slightly scary encounter with a buck. Saw one baby snake. Tough hike but great views! Did counter clockwise and highly recommend.
August 9, 2020Counter clockwise will be easier. Lots of big trees and one cool view. Lots of shade but no places for a picnic.
August 4, 2020it’s hard, but it’s so worth it
July 24, 2020Road construction signs were out, but we made it to the Redwood Creek Trailhead with no delays. 8-10 cars in the parking lot, but almost no one on the trail. A few sections of the trail were overgrown, perhaps from the lack of visitors. Came across a family of four returning from three days of backpacking; saw another couple with backpacks heading down the Hart Trail. No bugs, lots of bird activity, and a pleasant breeze whenever we stopped to catch our breath.
July 12, 2020Great trail, can get through rather quick. Recommend long pants and sleeves, trail is really narrow and brushy in places.
July 10, 2020Great trail! Saw some giant bees, baby snakes, a deer but nothing too crazy. Beautiful sites and definitely a good shaded hike. Didn't see many people on the hike so it was nice and peaceful!
July 4, 2020Rainbow iris-Iris hartwegii Woodland pinedrops-Pterospora andromedea Sugar pine-Pinus lambertiana Crimson columbine-Aquilegia formosa Nevada deervetch-Acmispon nevadensis Kelley’s lily-Lilium kelleyanum Chaparral nightshade-Solanum xanti Butterfly mariposa lily-Calochortus venustus Elegant brodiaea- Brodiaea elegans Dudley’s clarkia-Clarkia dudleyana Pussypaws-Cistanthe monosperma Harlequin lupine- Lupinus stiversii Mountain misery bearclover-Chamaebatia foliolosa Western wallflower-Erysimum capitatum Mountain beebalm-Monardella odoratissima with Mormon fritillary-Speyeria mormonia Bigleaf lupine-Lupinus polyphyllus Chaparral false bindweed-Calystegia occidentalis Bruneau mariposa lily-Calochortus bruneaunis
June 14, 2020May 25, 2020Great hike. Gorgeous sequoias everywhere. Amazing views at the top of baldy ridge. GPS was acting and recorded more miles. Actually only did about 7
May 23, 2020nice hike , awesome trails and scenery
February 15, 2020Beautiful hike!! The access road to trailhead was not something I I would try in a golf (adding 4 total miles to hike). The access road was very icy for the first 1/4 of the mile after that it is drivable. Anyways back to the hike! Enter though a stand of sequoias that follows through to the top of the mountain. The trees are amazing, but we did have to hike around some blow down trees on the trail. The hike has great Mountain View and finishes off following the creek at the bottom of the mountain. Be on the lookout for bears! We saw lots of bear poop.
October 11, 2019October 11, great time of year for this hike. I did Sugarbowl trail down to the creek, spent the night along the water, then hiked out Hart trail. Beautiful hike among the giant trees. No bugs, few people, cold at night, but gorgeous during the day.
August 9, 2019Beautiful hike. Great views, a few creeks and lots of forest. Go start early to avoid any heat during the summer.
July 21, 2019Trail was great! Didn’t see a single person the whole hike which made it nice! Great views and some awesome trees look at! Definitely recommend!
June 25, 2019Got on the trail very early—about 5:30am. Amazing sunrise views. Saw eight mule deer along the way. Loved it.
June 21, 2019Epic loop! Wasn't very crowded when I went.
June 11, 2019Really nice trail, though I agree it seems closer to 8 miles than 6 miles. We went early and only ran into 1 other group at the very end. Redwoods are beautiful and the wildflowers are out. We did have to scramble over quite a few downed trees on the trail, but they were all pretty easy to get over. Trail was dry or will be in another day or two. The creek at the bottom of drainage is a nice place for lunch or snack. Did see a lot of poison oak along trail, so you may want to have long pants on and not shorts.
June 2, 2019Such a great hike. Some thundering happening while on the trails. The trees are absolutely amazing and almost unreal. Saw one deer on the trail. Definitely feels like a long trail than 6.5 miles. Felt more like an 8 mile hike. Still worth the trek! Will definitely do it again!
December 10, 2018This is a great loop, especially for backpacking. We went in early december, these are a few notes for anyone else going in winter: The forest road to the trailhead is a dirt road that isn't plowed, so unless you're very confident in snow you'll probably want to park at Quail Flats and hike approx 2 miles in to the trailhead. It's an easy walk in, but adds some climbing to the hike out. As of december 2018, the creek was flowing well - easy to filter water from it. The trail can be a little hard to follow in some places, and as you come up to the trailhead on the redwood creek side, the de facto trail strays a little way from the mapped trail, but you do eventually get there. There are a bunch of workable spots for camping near the creek. Lastly, the trail was slushy during the day, so waterproof boots are definitely a good idea.
November 11, 2018My 2 kids, 10yr old granddaughter and I went on this beautiful backpack trip Oct 19-21/2018. We had perfect weather 65 during the day, and hi 30's at night. Gravel road to parking lot was perfect, looked as though it had been recently redone. Leaving the parking lot, we went on the left trail choosing to go down hill to where we would camp. It was about 2.5 miles to the bottom, and a beautiful hike. There is a stream about a mile down the trail, and it goes close to the trail the rest of the way to the bottom. Take note, there are very few places to set up camp. We came back going left coming back the approx 4.5 mi back to the parking lot. There are no streams or water sources all the way back. We had a great time!!!! Beautiful hike, saw 4 deer, 2 coming into our camp site at about 8PM on our second night. LOVED IT ALL!!!!!!!
November 4, 2018We did this hike on 10/6/18. We hiked counterclockwise from the trailhead. It was overcast and cool when we started and we finished in the rain. The sun did come out occasionally to light up the sequoias and they’re the star of this hike. The sugar bowl itself is just unreal. Huge trees everywhere. It was surreal. There were a couple of sections of the trail that afforded views of big baldy and little baldy, which could be very nice but they were obscured by the clouds when we hiked it. Clouds or not, the magnificent trees are an experience unto themselves. After the sugarbowl, and you'll know you're in it because every tree you can see is a sequoia, it's a long downhill jog to the canyon floor, then a long uphill slog back to the trailhead. There aren't many sequoias on the downward section but they grow more numerous on the way up and out of the canyon. Outstanding hike.
September 5, 2018What a great trail, well marked and maintained. The hike is closer to 7.1 miles and takes over 4 hours. Be sure to stop often and look up and around..... the giant Sequoia’s are so beautiful and the views breathtaking. We went on Labor Day, the parking lot was full but didn’t run into too many groups. Started at the Sugar Bowl trail head, to the right, and made the loop. It was at least 20 degrees cooler up in Kings Canyon than in the valley. Since it’s summer, the small creeks were dry. However, there is a nice stream that runs along the last couple miles and I recommend sitting, cooling off your feet before the last mile, all uphill. Looking forward to coming back in the Spring!
