CALIFORNIA
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park - Observation Deck Trail
Thanks to my Utah and Virginia trips I actually completed my 2021 hiking goal already. I had a day off though and hadn’t gone out in a while so I referred back to my state parks list.
Henry Cowell State Park is near Santa Cruz, so not too far away. I picked the Observation Deck trail because it is 5 miles out and back with 600 feet of elevation gain which seemed casual enough.
My first impression of this route is that it’s not very straightforward. You have to follow along with a route of different trails and there are quite a few forks. The signage wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Thankfully we were able to use Google Maps to keep us on the right track.
The first section of the hike was fine but once we got high enough on Pine Trail it was sandy because these are sandhills I guess…
Combined with the elevation gain it wasn’t very fun to walk along. Definitely wear tall socks if you go this way! I always wear ankle socks and regret it.
Finally there’s the observation deck. I think this would be a much different blog post if it hadn’t been foggy. I found the view of the trees and sandhills to be pretty disappointing compared to other hikes I’ve done in the Santa Cruz mountains and we couldn’t see the bay at all.
All in all I think I just didn’t like this trail. There are a few others on the park website that look interesting. I may have to follow up.
After hiking we headed into Santa Cruz for some beers at Lúpulo