"When a ROAD CLOSED sign is in place, all forest users must stay out of the closed area." That line comes from a CAL FIRE news release dated August 28, 2026. It announced that Sulphur Springs Road would close from the Corral Road intersection to Ridge Trail beginning Monday, August 31. The release expected the closure to last "approximately one month or until further notice."
A month later, the forest's status page still lists Upper Sulphur Springs Road as closed. It also warns that more closures on Lower Sulphur Springs Road are coming this fall.
Put that next to the trail news from this spring and you get a clear picture of the season. Getting up into Soquel Demonstration State Forest takes more effort than it did last fall. The ways back down are all open, and one of them was just rebuilt from top to bottom.
The Closure Belongs to a Two-Year Contract
The one-month estimate makes more sense once you see the size of the project behind it. CAL FIRE says the work is meant to improve emergency vehicle access and the long-term stability of Sulphur Springs Road. The closure exists to keep people away while heavy equipment is running.
The state's bid solicitation, posted in April 2026, covers more than one stretch of dirt. It includes work on both Sulphur Springs and Sulphur Flat roads: grading, widening, culvert replacement, rolling dips, rock armor and erosion control. The contract's performance period runs from June 2026 through May 2028. CAL FIRE's June 2026 Director's Report said two small-business bids had come in and that the work was expected during the field season.
May 2028 is when the contract ends. It is not a promised reopening date for any particular road. Still, it means the Upper Sulphur closure is the first phase of a longer project. The Lower Sulphur closures CAL FIRE has flagged for this fall don't have dates or exact limits yet.
How the Climb Works Right Now
The main public entrance is 29400 Highland Way. The forest is open for day use from dawn to dusk. From Soquel Village, that entrance is about six miles east of where Highland Way leaves Soquel-San Jose Road.
Once you're inside, the posted detour to Ridge Trail looks like this:
- Skip Upper Sulphur Springs Road at the Corral Road intersection, where the closure starts.
- Climb Corral Road and then Corral Trail, the route CAL FIRE has designated for uphill travel.
- Plan for about 1.5 extra miles of uphill compared with the usual Sulphur Springs climb.
- Rejoin Ridge Trail at the top, where the closed section ends.
There is one exception. The release says Sulphur Springs Road "may be open on weekend days and holidays as operations allow," and the sign on the road shows whether it's open or closed that day. That makes Saturday the day the old climb might be available, and the sign at the road is the only reliable answer.
Expect trucks on the way in, too. CAL FIRE says heavy equipment and truck traffic will be present on Hihn's Mill Road. The forest's standing rules already say to expect management traffic on forest roads and two-way traffic on roads in general. They also ask visitors not to block fire roads or gates. This fall, when you park matters more than usual.
Everything Pointing Downhill Is Open
The release spells out what the closure leaves alone: "All other trails and roads will remain accessible to the public." That covers the three trails CAL FIRE recommends for downhill traffic only, which are Braille, Flow and Sawpit.
Braille is the one that changed this year. Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, the nonprofit that partners with forest staff on trail maintenance and building, planned six weeks of work there in 2026. The plan covered improved berms, jumps and drops, drainage and rut repair, and a few small reroutes. On March 31, 2026, the group reported that it had "recently wrapped up six weeks of major work on the legendary Braille Trail." It also said it plans to pick another advanced trail built for mountain bikes for the same kind of top-to-bottom overhaul next year.
The other two downhill trails have been in place for a while. Flow is a four-mile trail finished in 2015. The Sawpit reroute was built in 2019 and opened in April 2020. So this fall, a ride looks like a longer climb up Corral, then a choice among three open descents, one of them freshly rebuilt.
A few standing rules apply to all of it. E-bikes are not allowed anywhere in the forest. Bikes yield to hikers and horses, and hikers yield to horses. There is no developed water source, cell reception is spotty, and poison oak and ticks are common. The longer climb makes the advice to bring plenty of water count for more than it did in August.
Then the Rain Arrives on Top of the Roadwork
October brings two seasonal rules that stack on the construction detour.
Wet trails. CAL FIRE asks riders to stay off trails when soils are saturated. After a storm, wait at least one day for every inch of rain before riding. A two-inch storm in November takes the whole weekend off the table, detour or not.
Mushroom permits. Personal-use mushroom gathering permits for the forest are available online from October 15 through January 31. If the form has stopped accepting responses, permits are closed for the season. On the same page, the forest posts a May 2026 health update from the California Department of Public Health. It describes an outbreak of potentially deadly amatoxin poisoning linked to eating foraged wild mushrooms and urges people to avoid foraging for and eating wild mushrooms while the risk is high. The permit window and the state's health warning appear side by side. Anyone thinking about foraging should read the CDPH update before applying for a permit.
This Is a Road Season, With the Next Timber Harvest Set for 2027
Soquel Demonstration State Forest is a working forest, and closures there usually follow its management calendar. This fall, the calendar is mostly about roads.
The forest's harvest schedule lists the Sulphur timber operation in 2024. The next planned Timber Harvesting Plan, called Amaya II, is set for 2027. CAL FIRE's June report said Amaya II had been submitted and sent back for revisions.
A three-year contract to remove invasive species began April 14, 2026. That work happens mostly along and beside roads, and the report doesn't mention any public closures tied to it. Earlier this year, CAL FIRE planned an eight-acre prescribed burn beside Sulphur Springs Road for June 4. The road was set to close for the burn and possibly for several days after.
That makes 2026 the third year in a row that Sulphur Springs Road has been at the center of the forest's work: logging in 2024, a burn in June, and a rebuild this fall. Riders who rely on it as their regular climb have been rerouted more than once. The difference this time is that the work lasts as long as a contract instead of a single operation.
Getting There From the Village This Fall
The drive out has improved a little. Santa Cruz County's 2026 pavement project page said most of the work was done and that final striping on S. Main Street, Porter Street and Soquel San Jose Road was scheduled for September 28 through 30. In the Soquel area, the project covered Soquel San Jose Road from Soquel Drive to Olive Springs Road. That is the stretch most people from the village use to reach Highland Way.
The trip back can be slower. The southbound Highway 1 offramp at Bay Avenue closed on August 2 for about four months, so if the schedule holds it stays closed into early December. Its detour sends drivers through Soquel Drive. Kym DeWitt, a co-owner of Beer Thirty Bottle Shop and Pour House at 2504 S. Main St., told the Sentinel that Bay Avenue is her shop's direct exit. Her neighbors on the Holiday Corners properties include Carpo's Restaurant, Buzzo Pizza and Sunnyside Produce. Riders coming down from the forest don't need that offramp to reach any of them.
Home Away opened at 4901 Soquel Dr. in November 2025. It serves casual daytime food and drinks, and its reported regular hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. That schedule fits a morning ride that ends with lunch on Soquel Drive.
Before any visit this fall, check the forest's page and the SDSF Facebook page. CAL FIRE points visitors to both for current closures, and the sign at the road has the final say.
Changes like these reach past the forest gate and onto the roads Soquel uses every day. If you're wondering how projects like this road work fit into what your home is worth, Genie Lawless can help, and her updates come from following these local changes as they happen. Get Your Home Valuation, and get a Soquel-specific answer.
