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Portola Redwoods State ParkPescadero Creek County ParkCalifornia > San Francisco Bay Area
Towne Overlook, Sam McDonald County Park. Located in the central Santa Cruz Mountains are five redwood-blanketed parks: Portola, Pescadero, Memorial, Sam McDonald, and Heritage Grove. These parks have an interconnected trail system and offer some very nice hiking, mostly in second-growth forests, but with a few patches of old growth. There aren't really any spectacular sights in these parks, but if you live in the cities of the Peninsula or South Bay you'll find that the forests here are definitely a few notches nicer than the forests closer to home. The woodland is strikingly lush and green, and the area is quiet and remote, with little or no traffic noise on most trails. Portola Redwoods State ParkLocated just five miles north of Big Basin, Portola has some of the same mountain getaway feel but is much less crowded. On the other hand, Portola doesn't have the stately, serene redwoods of Big Basin. If Big Basin is the Yosemite of the Bay Area, Portola is more of a quiet neighborhood park where people go to hang out and relax. The park's main entrance and visitors' center are located in a redwood grove that's been protected from logging since 1924. The interpretive signs say that this region has been selectively logged, but practically no stumps are visible except for a cluster near the campfire center, and Lawrence Fox's 1986 inventory of redwood forests classifies the area as old growth. The area does lack really big trees, but this might just be its natural state; despite its lowland location, it looks more like a typical redwood upland. It's possible that Portola escaped significant logging because it was too far from the mills and didn't have the numerous big redwoods that other nearby locations, like the Middleton Tract and Slate Creek, offered. The park does have two remarkable lowland groves: Peters Creek, which is old-growth and can only be reached by a long trek with lots of climbing, and Slate Creek, which has been partially logged but is nontheless quite scenic and easier to reach. On a side note, the Portola visitor's center has one of the best park relief maps I've ever seen. The big, detailed three-dimensional map covers not just Portola but much of the Santa Cruz Mountains, including all of Big Basin State Park, plus Skyline Ridge and even Ben Lomond Mountain.
Homestead Flat, Memorial County Park Pescadero Creek County ParkPescadero may be the peninsula's most underappreciated park. Despite its attractive forests and an excellent, well-maintained network of trails, hardly anyone comes here. Even on a nice summer weekend you may not meet a single hiker on the trail. The land was at one time owned by a timber company and throughout the park are scattered dismal areas of logged redwooods, with lots of big stumps and a dense growth of small trees. However, most of the park consists of more gently-managed forests that don't show any sign of logging except, perhaps, for a lack of fallen trees. The redwood forests are restricted to the lowest elevations; mixed forests, hardwood forests, and open grasslands predominate higher up the hillsides. Taken as a whole, the park is more attractive and enjoyable than some old-growth redwood parks. Pescadero lacks visitors because it hasn't been developed: there's no ranger station or visitor center, only two primitive trail camps, and no facilities. In fact, you can't even drive into the center of the park; you have to hike in from a neighboring park or from the Tarwater trailhead, a remote dirt lot that's accessed by a single-lane road. Plans to develop the park - which included a proposal to generate income for the county by logging its forests - were fortunately defeated by local residents concerned about traffic. As a result of its isolation, Pescadero is strikingly quiet and peaceful, with a complete lack of traffic noise that's something of a shock for those of us who frequent the suburban parks around San Francisco Bay. Surrounded by a seemingly endless expanse of conifer-clad hills, the park has a wild, remote feel that you just don't get closer to home. What's more, the park is close to the ocean and usually has refreshingly crisp and cool air in the summer, yet rarely gets the depressing all-day fog that cloaks the immediate coastline.
Forest Loop Trail, Sam McDonald County Park Memorial County Park, Sam McDonald County Park, and Heritage GroveTwo smaller neighboring parks, Memorial Park and Sam McDonald Park, are more developed than Pescadero Creek, with extensive camping facilities and some nice trails. Memorial County Park has a large and very popular campground set in an old-growth redwood grove. Sam McDonald County Park has a series of group campgrounds located in second-growth redwoods; there's also a horse camp and a hikers' cabin. A fourth park, Heritage Grove, is a tiny and attractive redwood grove located on Alpine Road. Together, the four county parks are known as the Pescadero Creek Complex. The only staffed location in the Pescadero Creek Complex is the Memorial County Park entrance kiosk, where you can buy maps and ask about trail conditions. Old-growth redwood hikes
** The Peters Creek Loop (11.5 miles) ** Heritage Grove (0.5 miles) Other hikes
** Coyote Ridge and Tarwater Loop (5.8 miles) ** The Mount Ellen Loop (4.6 miles) * The Butano Ridge Loop Trail (13.1 miles) * Tarwater - Pomponio - Brook - Canyon (10 miles) * The Heritage Grove Trail (6 miles) News
The Sheriff's Honor Camp, more commonly known as the La Honda Jail, has been (temporarily?) re-opened to relieve overcrowding in Redwood City jails. See this article in the Half Moon Bay Review and another in the Oakland Tribune. Additional information
Park headquarters at Memorial County Park
© 2006-2012 David Baselt |
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