Castle Rock Falls

Los Gatos / San Jose / Castle Rock State Park, California, USA

About Castle Rock Falls


Hiking Distance: 2.4 miles round trip (incl. Castle Rock)
Suggested Time: 60-90 minutes

Date first visited: 2016-05-19
Date last visited: 2016-05-19

Waterfall Latitude: 37.22634
Waterfall Longitude: -122.10566

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Castle Rock Falls really seemed to us like a sideshow compared to some of the other attractions that were on offer at the Castle Rock State Park – namely the interesting rock formations as well as the views towards the Pacific Ocean. As you can see from the photo at the top of this page, the waterfall itself wasn’t particularly that interesting, especially since none of the sanctioned trails allowed us to have a good view of it as we were only able to get a partial view over its brink from the lookout platform. Other than that, our experience with this waterfall was perhaps overshadowed by the imposing Castle Rock formation, which was full of little arches, alcoves, and even strange formations (some of which seemed like it was out of a Science Fiction movie or video game). In fact, this park was well-known amongst Bay Area residents, and it was said to be amongst the most popular as well, especially on the weekends. Maybe next time we’re here, we’ll do the Goat Rock Trail to climb even higher for the commanding views towards the Pacific Ocean and San Lorenzo Valley.

Since this page is about the waterfall, we’ll just describe the hike to get there and back from the main parking lot (see directions down below). We started from the well-signed trail onto the Saratoga Gap, which promptly descended as it approached the waterfall, which was said to be about 0.8 miles away. All this elevation loss meant we’d have to climb uphill on the way back. The trail was well-shaded with several tall trees (some of them were coastal redwoods I believe) seen along the way. There were also a couple of trail junctions (one for Castle Rock and another for Goat Rock), but they deviated from the waterfall so we kept going. After crossing over a bridge above the Kings Creek, we then made it to the viewing platform above Castle Rock Falls roughly 20 minutes after we started.

The lookout deck had some partial views of the ridges and mountains in the immediate area while affording us the partial top down view of the waterfall itself. Speaking of the falls, it was said to be on the order of 70ft or so though it was hard to tell from our vantage point. I’ve seen in the literature that some people have managed to scramble their way around to the bottom for a more satisfying frontal look at it, and I even noticed some use trails deviating from the main Saratoga Gap Trail probably for scrambling for a better view. However, we didn’t bother trying to explore the off-trail scrambling, especially given the steep nature of the terrain, which would make it very dangerous.

When we had our fill of this waterfall, we went back uphill the way we came, but we then made a quick detour on the Castle Rock Trail, which took us about 35 minutes to finally get to the imposing rock formation. There were actually more rock formations like that of Castle Rock, and I’m sure rock climbers could have their pick at which one of these rocks they’d like to tackle. Anyways, Castle Rock itself was perhaps the largest of these sandstone rocks, which Mom theorized might have come from the ocean several millions of years ago, and that might explain the alien-like formations seen in some of the alcoves as well as some of the small natural arches. When we were done visiting this rock, the parking lot wasn’t much further, and so in total, we spent about 90 minutes away from the car to take it all in (including Castle Rock as well as the Castle Rock Falls).

Castle_Rock_001_05192016
Castle_Rock_002_05192016
Castle_Rock_004_05192016
Castle_Rock_007_05192016
Castle_Rock_015_05192016
Castle_Rock_019_05192016
Castle_Rock_021_05192016
Castle_Rock_024_05192016
Castle_Rock_036_05192016
Castle_Rock_039_05192016
Castle_Rock_050_05192016
Castle_Rock_053_05192016
Castle_Rock_056_05192016
Castle_Rock_064_05192016
Castle_Rock_070_05192016
Castle_Rock_088_05192016
Castle_Rock_113_05192016
Castle_Rock_112_05192016
Castle_Rock_120_05192016
Castle_Rock_132_05192016


Castle Rock Falls resided in Castle Rock State Park, which was roughly a 45-minute drive from San Jose. We managed to get here from Morgan Hill, which was another 15-20 minutes to the southeast along the US101, and we’ll do the driving directions from there. If you’re coming from the Bay Area, you can pick up the driving directions from the Hwy 17 towards Los Gatos.

So starting from Morgan Hill, we drove north on the US101 for about 10 miles to its junction with the 85 Freeway. We then headed west on the 85 Freeway for over the next 10.5 miles before junctioning with the 17 Freeway due south towards Los Gatos. Next, we took the 17 Freeway for a little over 5 miles to the exit onto Montevina Road. Turning right at the offramp, we then followed Montevina Road north alongside the 17 Freeway for about 0.3 miles towards Black Road on our left. Turning left onto Black Road, we would then follow it for the next 4.5 miles eventually turning right onto the Skyline Blvd.

Castle_Rock_130_05192016
The gated entrance to Castle Rock State Park right off Skyline Blvd
During our visit, we were unlucky with a tree falling onto Black Road so it was closed and we had to take the narrow single-lane Gist Road to connect from Black Road to Skyline Blvd. In any case, we then headed north on Skyline Blvd for the about the next 5.5 miles to the well-signed turnoff and parking area for Castle Rock State Park. Since the park gates was said to close at sunset, we took advantage of the parking just outside the gates just so we wouldn’t be locked in if we were out later than expected. Had Black Road been open, then we would only have to go a little under 4 miles along the twisty Skyline Blvd.

Overall, this drive took us about an hour to get from Morgan Hill to the Castle Rock State Park via the Gist Road detour.

Find A Place To Stay

Sweep checking out the top of Castle Rock Falls and the view from here

Related Top 10 Lists

No Posts Found

Trip Planning Resources


Nearby Accommodations



Tagged with: los gatos, san jose, castle rock, state park, santa clara, california, bay area, northern california, waterfall, san lorenzo valley



Visitor Comments:

Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...

No users have replied to the content on this page


Share your thoughts about what you've read on this page

You must be logged in to submit content. Refresh this page after you have logged in.

Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:

If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...

No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall


Have you been to a waterfall? Submit a write-up/review and share your experiences or impressions

Review A Waterfall

Nearest Waterfalls

The Waterfaller Newsletter

The Waterfaller Newsletter is where we curate the wealth of information on the World of Waterfalls website and deliver it to you in bite-sized chunks in your email inbox. You'll also get exclusive content like...

  • Waterfall Wednesdays
  • Insider Tips
  • User-submitted Waterfall Write-up of the Month
  • and the latest news and updates both within the website as well as around the wonderful world of waterfalls


How To Build A Profitable Travel Blog In 4 Steps