In California, we are lucky to have some of the oldest living old-growth coastal redwoods, the tallest living things on the planet. There is something extraordinary about these trees and I am not just referring to their size.
Redwoods are the superheroes of the plant world. They can battle fires, high winds and floods quite successfully. Their roots spread out laterally and they hold on to each other…they are the tallest trees in the world, yet their cone is the size of an olive and a seed the size of a flake of oatmeal.
My husband and I love hiking through the various Redwood forest state parks dotting the Bay Area. There is something magical and serene about walking through sun-dappled, elegantly fluted tree trunks that shoot straight as an arrow into the sky, while down below you are surrounded by giant fallen trunks, the occasional gurgling creek and a lush accumulation of ferns, maples and alder.
Last winter, my sister arrived from the East Coast for the Christmas-New Year break and a friend was visiting from LA. My husband suggested visiting the Roaring Camp Railroad for which he had two unused train tickets from an earlier visit with his parents. It was a last minute decision and we didn’t do any research before heading towards Santa Cruz.
Roaring Camp is situated south of downtown Felton on Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
What we didn’t realize as we headed there is that Roaring Camp and its neighbor the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park are home to some of the most magnificent Redwoods in California.
During the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, thousands crowded the remote redwood region in search of riches and new lives. Failing in efforts to strike it rich in gold, these men turned toward harvesting the giant trees for booming development in San Francisco and other places on the West Coast. The size of the huge trees made them prized timber, as redwood became known for its durability and workability. Timber harvesting quickly became the top manufacturing industry in the west.
After many decades of unobstructed clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. By the time Roaring Camp Railroads was set up in 1963, nearly 90% of the original redwood trees in California had been logged.
In the 1880s narrow-gauge steam locomotives were used to haul giant redwood logs out of the mountains in California. Roaring Camp Railroads salvaged some of these old locomotives and today runs a narrow gauge tourist railroad that starts from the Roaring Camp depot and runs up steep grades to the top of nearby Bear Mountain, a distance of 3.25 miles (5.23 km) traveling through a redwood forest.
Warm Apple Cider with Caramel in hand, sunshine, a nip in the air and up we went the winding mountain trail with a spectacular view of the redwood forest in the historic, authentically preserved narrow-gauge steam engine train from 1890.
Since that first visit, we have been here again and the second time, we explored the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park next door. The park has about 20 miles of trails, ranging from 0.4 miles long to 3.3 miles long. This time, we had a larger group that included my husband’s elderly uncle and aunt. We decided to go easy and explore only the Redwood Grove Trail, a flat, easy 0.8 mile loop around the giant redwoods.
Henry Cowell’s redwood grove is the only remaining old-growth grove in the Santa Cruz area and is an intriguing glimpse into what the region’s extensive redwood forests might have once looked like.
We visited in May, just as the weather was beginning to change, but here in the Redwood grove it was remarkably cool and lush. The trail is wide and kids and elderly friendly. It meanders beneath the ancient forest canopy, with trees that are hundreds of feet tall. You will pass many misshapen trees, spectacular fallen trunks from which new saplings are springing to life, trunks hollowed out by fire, and trees with burls, dense knots of wood created when the tree undergoes stress.
It’s the perfect place to bring out-of-town visitors for a short, but awe-inspiring hike. Combine the Roaring Camp Railroad ride with a walk around the Redwood Loop Trail and you have the perfect day out with friends or family with a Redwood experience they will never forget.
