Redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains

The big trees start about fifteen minutes behind the beach

You do not have to drive to the far north of the state to stand under coast redwoods. They begin in the hills immediately behind Santa Cruz, and the road up from town reaches old-growth groves quickly enough that people go before lunch and are back on the sand in the afternoon.

Henry Cowell Redwoods sits along the San Lorenzo River near Felton and holds the most accessible grove in the range. The main loop is short, flat and shaded, which makes it the right choice with small children, older parents, or anyone who is not dressed for a hike. The Forest of Nisene Marks, above Aptos on the other side of Santa Cruz, is a different proposition: second-growth forest on old logging grades, quieter, and easy to walk a long way in without meaning to.

Big Basin is the oldest state park in California and it burned hard in the 2020 CZU fire. It has been reopening in stages since, with limited access and a landscape that is visibly recovering rather than restored. Going there now means seeing what a redwood forest does after fire, which is genuinely interesting, but it is not the park older guidebooks describe.

Save it for the morning the coast is gray

This is the best use of a bad beach day. When the marine layer sits over Santa Cruz until early afternoon, the forest is already the right temperature and the light under the canopy does not depend on sun. The reverse is also true: on a hot inland day the groves stay noticeably cooler than the valleys around them.

Dress for shade rather than for the coast. It runs damp under the trees, the ground stays soft after rain for longer than you would expect, and roots across the trail make proper shoes worth having even on the flat loops. Cell service in the canyons is unreliable, so download your map before you leave town.

Access is the thing to check. Park hours change with the season, some roads and trails close in winter storms, and Big Basin in particular operates under access arrangements that have changed repeatedly since the fire. Confirm what is open the week you go rather than relying on a page you read a year ago. Your local manager will usually know which parks are running normally.

The roads up are narrow, winding and shared with local traffic that knows every turn. Give yourself more time than the map suggests, and if someone is stacked up behind you, use a turnout. Weekend afternoons at Henry Cowell fill the day-use lots, so an early start is worth as much here as it is anywhere on the bay.