My trusty dog, husband, and I just returned from an adventure trying to find the Cave Run Trail at Toro Park. First of all, the trail is NOT marked, so when we initially walked passed it I thought it was just a trail from some yahoos out bushwhacking (which is against the rules) and not a designated trail.
We arrived at the parking lot just outside Toro Park around 8:45ish possibly as late as 9:00 and did our usual confused meander looking for a trail head. REI and Toro Park were holding a special event for kids to learn mountain bikers. My puppy for some reason thinks that she must chase anything on wheels, no matter how many times we tell her to "leave it."
The trail up to the Caves begins at the East Ridge Trail trail head, near the Buckeye Picnic area. Conveniently there are some bathrooms near the trail head and a couple of swing sets etc. Up the trail we went, and we kept climbing and climbing and climbing until we eventually asked another hiker if she came up this way often, and if she knew where this trail head was. She gave a bunch of meaningless information, and ultimately was wrong ... but at least she was nice enough to chat with us.
Since it was 80+ degrees out and I didn't feel like climbing up East Ridge Trail to East Toyon Ridge or any of that, we decided to just turn around in failure. We tried walking down some trails that went through a couple of brush piles, but most of them led to look outs over the cliffs.
Eventually, we found something that looked like a more substantial trail and had a bunch more foot prints! AHA! This must be it! Even though we probably passed it on the way up, it is only 50 -100 feet from the trailhead itself.
It was a heavily eroded trail, with a steep-ish embankment and loose dirt, which I wasn't prepared for since I was only in sneakers. After slipping and sliding, I really really really wished I had better traction on my shoes - but I survived. The trail itself was in no way 1.2 miles long like the Toro Park trail map might lead you to believe. Instead, it was maybe .25 miles at the very most. We arrived at the first cave, and it was covered in graffiti and had tons of litter. We stopped to take some pictures, saw some quail hiding in the bushes. One of the caves reaked of urine. Perhaps some bums like to camp there, who knows. My husband said there was something of a "goat trail" that might of kept going, but it was going to require better shoes than what we had on, and we didn't feel like accidentally sliding down the hill or twisting an ankle. So, we turned around.
The entire hike took us an hour, maybe and hour and a half and we spent most of that just being lost and confused about where the trail actually was. I left a very very small dolomite rock cairn at the base of the trail for the next shmuck like me who visits the park and wants to check it out.
Let me know if you have ever been out there. If I ever go again, I am going to have better shoes and bring my trekking poles with me.
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