Ponderosa Way Bridge

This is a year round GEM! Up until last weekend, my experience with this place had been going out here almost every weekend in the summer (when I wasn’t knocked up that is). Amazing swimming location with rocks to jump off of, an «island» in the middle of the river to set up your easy up and chairs, and a nice slow flow to the river so little ones are ok to swim. (But no lifeguard available, so just keep that in mind if you do let your kids swim). By far my favorite river locale in Sacramento to hang out at.
I had always seen the beginning of the hiking trail, but until last weekend had never tried it. It is a mostly flat, 1.7 mile (each way) hike to a waterfall that was RAGING when we visited last weekend after all of our recent rain! The kids had a blast — my two preschoolers did it in about 3 hours, including the time spent hanging out at the waterfall. Our littlest hikers — 2 and 9 months — conked out about halfway through, so if your babies are small bring a good child carrier backpack!
There are porta potties at the head of the trail, as is the ranger «station» in the summer time. Parking is $ 10 per day, although when we went last weekend the box for dropping day fees was gone. In the summer however, the rangers are out all day, especially on the weekends.

Hey everybody — I can show all of you an easy way to save $ 10.
Simply park in Applegate and take the «Codfish Falls Trail Extension».
Take the Applegate Exit, and then turn right toward Applegate Road, then turn left.
Turn right on Boole Road, and go approximately 1.5 miles to Cerro Vista Drive, bearing left. After climbing up a steep hill for ¼ mile you will see a large parking area, which is one of the trail heads.
From there, its a little more complicated — I know the secret entrance to the Codfish Falls trail extension. Its about 3.6 miles each way to Codfish Falls. Moderate difficulty, but you have breathtaking views and you don’t have to deal with treacherous & dusty Ponderosa Road with all those dangerous switchbacks… and best of all you can spend the $ 10 entrance fee you saved on snacks & bottled water!

I’m glad we came in a SUV, because it was a bumpy ride. I wouldn’t want to drive there myself on the narrow and steep road. I’m nervous when it comes to driving on bridges as well. There’s parking right before the bridge, so we went over it and back for nothing. A sign stated there’s a $ 10 entrance fee but there was nobody collecting money.
The Codfish Creek Falls Discovery Trail is easy to navigate for a beginner hiker. It’s 2.4 miles roundtrip. The American River was to the left of us as we hiked up. The trail is narrow with lots of trees providing shade. There was a porta-​potty along the way, but I would never think of using it. The trail leads you to a waterfall at the end. The waterfall was weak though, since we went in January and there hasn’t been much rainfall.
Luckily, none of us saw any poison oak.

I came here for the Codfish Creek Falls hike that I found online. I was surprised to find out that there is a $ 10 fee to enter the area. I was not at all excited about that. The drive down to the bridge (which is where the trail-​head is located) was a long and bumpy dirt road that was an interesting ride. Once you get to the bottom, it’s beautiful. The water is so clear, there are small patches of sandy beaches, and portable toilets. We hiked to the falls and it was fantastic. 1.4 miles to the falls and 1.4 miles back. We brought our dog which is allowed. There were portable toilets all along the trail although I don’t know if anybody actually uses them. The trail was nice and shaded most of the way. The falls were great as well. A great place to have a picnic and there was a strenuous trail to get to the top of the falls if you feel like climbing a bit. It was a great time.

Like the previous review said, they are charging $ 10 now, and it is a VERY bumpy ride in and out, steep but we made it in my corolla just fine. The road is very narrow so its a little scary when someone wants to pass. Lucky for us we didnt have to do that till the way out. The trail is very narrow, we had our daughter and dog with us, so it made it quite interesting. We saw a couple of lizards on the trail too. We only made it about a mile in as it was HOT today and our dog had had enough. So we turned around from there and headed back, she enjoyed the water once we got back to the beachy area! I would like to do this hike again maybe in the fall when the temp is cooler and we can make it all the way in to the falls. Beware there is poison oak on the trail too. We didnt get any, but were warned by some fellow hikers. Thank you!

I came here on 7−3−11. Effective this year the state is stationing rangers to collect a $ 10 entrance fee at the beginning of Ponderosa Way. This wasn’t noted anywhere so we had to drive back about 10 minutes to a little store that let us get cash — he said we were their third one that day and that this was the first year the state was charging at this access point. The drive down Ponderosa Way was pretty bumpy and steep at a few places, but my wimp meter is pretty pathetic so it probably wouldn’t bother anyone else. :) Please take caution as there are many idiots that drive this road much faster than they should — pay attention especially around blind corners. If 2 vehicles are passing on the road at once it can be a tight squeeze. Common courtesy helps here. There were many regular cars (camrys, corollas, accords, etc) that made it down this road okay but a truck would be your best bet. Parking is just before the Ponderosa Bridge, lots of photo ops along the way. There is a small box near the beginning of the Codfish Creek Falls Trail with maps of the trail and the area — you can print these offline ahead of time if you think you need one but this trail is very clearly marked. The trail parallels the North Fork of the American River for probably the first mile or so — which was flowing fast and pretty cold. There are several places to get off the trail and hang out by the river. We went straight to the falls — super pretty 40−50ft. falls! You can hike up to almost halfway up the falls — go around the rocks on the right — it isn’t as slippery as the left side. There is also a steep trail about a minute before the falls where you can hike up and actually get to the top of the falls for a pretty awesome view. You can also hike down past the bottom of the falls for some really pretty little pools where your kids or dogs can hang out and play in the water. There were TONS of butterflies and frogs right by the falls. There were a lot of people floating down the river in tubes and a bunch of people hanging out near the bridge when we returned from the hike. Seems like a pretty neat place to hang out. We passed several commercial rafting trip vans on the way back up Ponderosa Way, I’d imagine they were picking up rafters but haven’t looked into it yet. Also worth mentioning is the few portable restrooms located along the trails for those that need it. Poison oak was plentiful along the side of the trail. Easy, well maintained hike. Take water and sunscreen.