On our second day during our spring break trip to Santa Cruz, California, my friend Liz and I spent the morning hiking in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park (check out that blog post here), then, because there is no such thing as too much hiking, we headed down to the coastline to check out Wilder Ranch State Park.

Disclaimer: Before I get into the rest of this blog post, this is just a note to say that we made the decision to go through with this trip with the little information we had at the time, and we were extremely lucky not to get COVID-19 on our travels. As we were in California, the situation evolved very rapidly, and we quarantined ourselves immediately upon returning. If you are able, please practice isolation and social distancing. I hope you can use this post as a way to travel virtually until it’s safe for us all to fulfill our wanderlust again.

Wilder Ranch State Park’s history, like much of California, is shaped by the Spanish and their missions. When the nearby Mission Santa Cruz was established in 1791, the state park area became part of the mission pasture lands. Then, when the mission lands were divided into “ranchos,” large land grants, after secularization, Wilder Ranch became part of Rancho Refugio. The land was split into smaller ranches over the years, Wilder Ranch operating until 1969.

Several historic ranch buildings still survive, including an adobe building built by rancho grantee Jose Bolcoff, the Wilder's Victorian home, and several other ranch structures. Some of these have been restored for use as a museum, which we didn’t have a chance to visit.

There are 34 miles of biking, hiking, and equestrian trails in this park, some taking you down the coast, while others lead you up into the hills and stands of coast redwoods. Since Liz and I had just spent the day hiking through redwoods and the sandhills of Henry Cowell, we opted for the 2.5-miles from Old Cove Landing trail to Ohlone Bluff trail, hitting a couple of beaches along the way.

Maybe one of my absolute favorite parts of California (especially compared to Minnesota) was the wildflowers. We weren’t there during the peak wildflower season (or a super bloom), but they were still everywhere, covering the cliffsides and open meadows. From what I can tell (and I’m no wildflower expert), we saw Cliff Rose, Calla Lily (which I didn’t even know grew wild!), Johnny-Jump-Up, some species of Primrose, and several types of flowering succulents. As a succulent-grower (owner? gardener?) myself, I’m always amazed at how easily plants in general thrive in California. There, it’s like: here’s a centimeter of soil on a vertical cliff face, and hundreds of succulents blanket the rocks, sending out big beautiful blooms. Here (in Minnesota), it’s like: here’s special succulent soil mix, meticulously researched watering schedules, and grow lamps, and all of my succulents still die.

Our hike in Wilder Ranch also gave us our first substantial wildlife sightings of the trip. There were squirrels we caught while keeping on the lookout for mountain lions lurking in the underbrush, flocks of cormorants on the rocky outcroppings beside the cliffs, and (most notably), we had our first harbor seal interactions.

Pacific harbor seals are true seals, meaning they have no external ear flaps and must move on land by using their small flippers and flopping on their bellies. They are about five to six feet in length and weight up to 300 pounds. In California, harbor seal pups are born between February and April and can swim immediately. They are vulnerable to human disturbance, especially when pups are present, as they will abandon their pups if they are approached too quickly. However, while harbor seals swim safely offshore, they will often curiously watch humans walking on beaches.

In the third photograph down below, you’ll see the head of a harbor seal as it did just that. Liz and I had trekked down to Fern Grotto Beach to check out how cold the water was (it was COLD), and I was watching the surf while Liz waded further in. All of a sudden, what I thought was driftwood manifested into a dog-like head floating there watching us. Liz and I didn’t want to take our chance messing with a 300 pound wild animal (though leopard seals are the more aggressive seals we were probably picturing, with their giant sharp teeth, taking down penguins on Planet Earth), so we scuttled back up to the safety of the cliff top. However, pretty soon, we were delighted to find a colony of harbor seals hauled out on an inaccessible beach. We were completely enthralled by the pup (who is smaller and has a reddish brown tint to its coat), the derpy little expressions they made while sleeping, and the completely hilarious and endearing way they had to scoot along the sand.

One of my other favorite parts (okay, every part is my favorite part) of California and Wilder Ranch in particular was the cliff views. I’m a sucker for ocean waves crashing against a good cliffside, and Wilder Ranch definitely provided. The sky was a crisp blue, the cliffs were expansive and imposing, and the wind was carrying the spray nearly all the way to us. On some of the lookout points, the waves were hitting the rocks beneath us with such force that it created a dull thundering through the rest of the cliff face.

Be forewarned, though, it is WINDY up there. I fully expected to be blow off into the Pacific a few times.

Wilder Ranch State Park provided a beautiful, scenic hike along this stretch of Pacific coast, which made the perfect half-day hike to combine with our time at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. However, like Henry Cowell, Wilder Ranch has several other trail options to turn this into a full day adventure along the coast and up into the hills if you have more time in Santa Cruz. For us, this made for a wonderful end to our second day (and was the perfect place for me to wear shorts for the first time in way too long).

Up next: Tide-pooling for the first time in Natural Bridges State Park!

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