From Sea to Tree

     We started our third day in California with a trip to Wilder Ranch State Park just above Santa Cruz.  This park was created from a working dairy farm which had been operated by the Wilder family for five generations.  When operation of the farm became no longer profitable in the 1970s, a large development was planed for the acreage.  The citizens of Santa Cruz County voted to protect the land and in 1974 it was acquired by the state.   It consists of 7,000 acres of protected marshland, beaches and coastline.
      As this was a working farm as late as the 1970s, the state has done a great job preserving that aspect of the site as well as the natural aspects of the land.  I'm sure the site is also used as an education center as gardens and livestock are well maintained. There is a self-guide walking tour of the ranch buildings which includes one of the original structures on the site a circa 1839 adobe structure.  This building is now a shed but was originally the home of  one of the original farmers of the property Jose Antonio Bokcoff.

     Also present on the site is the 1896 Victorian home of Melvin Wilder which featured electric closet lights that turned on automatically when the closet door was opened - an early smart house. I should add at this point that the information contained in my blogs about these parks was obtained from a series of excellent brochures prepared by the state for each site we visited.

     After touring the farm property and buildings, we hiked the 2.5 mile Old Cove Landing Trail.  This trail takes you first through protected wetlands to Wilder Beach.  This beach is closed to protect the Western Snowy Plover, and endangered shorebird.

     The trail continues along the ocean bluffs(actually called Marine Terrace) to Old Landing Cove and Fern Grotto Beach.

     Fern Grotto is a small sea cave which is adorned with hanging ferns(hence its name).  The ferns are sustained by fresh water that drips through the ceiling of the cave.

      We were fortunate enough to visit this area at low tide and thus were able to see Harbor Seals sunning themselves on "haul out rock" in Old Landing Cove.  According to the trail guide Harbor Seals don't bark like sea lions and are mostly quiet.

     From Wilder Ranch we moved up the road a bit to Big Basin Redwoods State Park which is California's oldest state park created in 1902.  The park is around 18,000 acres and covers terrain from sea level to almost 2,000 feet.  We started our exploration of the park with a loop hike of about 6 miles. Much of the trail we hiked was part of an ultra-marathon(50 miler) to be held the next day.  It was not all that easy as several times the trail was blocked by recent blow downs.  Of course with an ultra marathon finishing is probably more important than your time. The forest was cool and peaceful.

It took us along streams through redwood forests to a point 1689 feet called Ocean View Summit.  Much as with our hike in Henry Cowell SP, the vegetation changes as we gained elevation, moving from redwood forest to pine with scrub vegetation.  As it was late in the day, looking west we could just make out the Pacific.

     Most visitors experience the redwoods by way of the Redwood Trail, a .6 mile loop with a trail guide that helps you understand the redwood forest.  We took a leisurely stroll and got to see highlights of this redwood grove.

     The Chimney Tree - a living tree that is hollow from base to top, caused by fires over the years that burned out the trees "heartwood" to create a flue.

     The Animal or Zoo Tree - a living tree where burls, growths that are thought to be dormant buds, are said to resemble various animals.

     Mother-of-the-Forest - this tree is the tallest in the park at 329 feet (There is a Father-of-the-Forest as well which is the oldest, 2000 years, but I couldn't get a picture of it)

   It was a vigorous and rewarding day of hiking.

 

 

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