Museums and Parks / South Yuba River SP
 South Yuba River State Park: |
| Point Defiance Trail
From the Visitor's Center, go through the covered bridge and proceed left on the trail west or down river. This trail has many "ups and downs" but in general is well maintained and a moderately easy hike all the way to Point Defiance on Englebright Lake, about one mile. If one were to walk through the bridge and straight up the canyon wall, an old miner's ditch would be encountered about 100 yards up the hill (not recommended). This ditch is actually a continuation of the one that the Buttermilk Bend Trail follows upstream, and can be seen crossing Pleasant Valley Road just above the North parking lot. There is a deep wash or drainage about 400 yards down the trail from the bridge and this is where the ditch ends on the uphill side of the trail, dropping down across the trail and then continuing downstream below the trail all the way to Point Defiance where it is lost in a dense patch of blackberry bushes. Tracing the ditch is an interesting pastime as you continue down the trail as it is not obvious in many places. Point Defiance now contains a campground with restrooms, picnic tables and fire rings available, but David I. Wood, the builder of the covered bridge, once lived there. It is also believed that a bridge once spanned the South Yuba River here, but the reservoir has wiped out all traces of any abutments. this are is actually a part of Englebright and is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. The trail terminates on a road at the north side of the campground. there are now two choices for the return to the Visitor's Center: return on the trail (one mile), or continue on up the road. The road is fairly steep for a little over a half mile, then levels off and meets Rice Crossing Road at the top. Turn right and continue downhill to Pleasant Valley Road, take another right and the Visitor's Center is .4 miles away. The total hike round trip is 2 miles by the trail only, or 2.8 miles following the road loop just described, a moderate hike with a fairly strenuous half mile walk up the road from the campground. |
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