Portola Redwoods
State Park
Pescadero Creek
County Park
Towne Overlook, Sam McDonald County Park.
The tall trees on the lower-right ridge are on the Canyon Trail in Pescadero Creek County Park.
These parks are adjacent to each other and have an interconnected trail system. Both parks offer excellent hiking, mostly in second-growth forests, but with a few patches of old growth.
Portola Redwoods is one valley north of Big Basin. The park has been selectively logged and today looks much like Big Basin would without its really big trees. It's a pleasant place and is less crowded than Big Basin on summer weekends, but Portola Redwoods lacks that stately, serene feel of true old growth. The park has one old growth grove, reached by a long trek with lots of climbing.
Pescadero Creek County Park is perhaps 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 day 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.
Homestead Flat, Memorial County Park
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. At one time, there was a county jail right in the middle of the park. Originally a Boy Scout Camp, the Sheriff's Honor Camp is now closed and empty.
Two smaller neighboring parks, Memorial Park and Sam McDonald Park, have extensive camping facilities with staffed offices. Sam McDonald County Park has a series of campgrounds located in second-growth redwoods and has the most popular trails in the Pescadero Creek complex. Memorial County Park has a large and impressive old growth redwood grove, but the hiking is not especially good here because most of the grove is occupied by a large campground. 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.
Forest Loop Trail, Sam McDonald County Park
Old-growth redwood hikes
** The Peters Creek Loop (11.5 miles)
A strenuous hike through unexceptional redwoods to a scenic redwood-filled canyon.
** Heritage Grove (0.5 miles)
Although this tiny park only contains a few dozen big redwoods and a few hundred feet of trail, it's one of the nicest redwood groves in the area.
Other hikes
* Tarwater - Pomponio - Brook - Canyon (10 miles)
This very peaceful and isolated hike, an extended version of the Tarwater Loop, shows off the pleasant, bright redwood and hardwood forests of central Pescadero Creek County Park.
* The Heritage Grove Trail (6 miles)
This loop explores the best trails of Sam McDonald County Park. It climbs to a grassy ridgetop with panoramic views, passes the Hikers' Hut, then descends into mostly second-growth redwoods.
Additional information
© 2006 David Baselt
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