Wilder Ranch State Park

Head up a mile or two north of Santa Cruz on Highway 1, and you'll find Wilder Ranch State Park, an open space consisting of ocean bluffs and hills straddling the highway.

Fog shrouds the San Mateo County coastline and the northern portion of Santa Cruz County, with Santa Cruz proper often a geographical exception where sunshine flourishes. The bluffs overlooking the ocean at Wilder Ranch are near the dividing line between fog and sun, and when we visited the fog was thin on a warm day, with hints of blue sky if you looked directly overhead. A short walk from the ranger station fronting the pay lot brings you along a dirt trail, quiet with songbirds, until you hear the pounding of the surf and the ocean or fog bank opens up in front of you.

While trails extend back toward the coastal hills, we hugged the cliffs along the ocean and were rewarded with clearing skies, with the land- and ocean-scape transforming from gray tones of forboding sea to spectacular blues and aquamarines. You could almost hope to become a seagull to embrace it all.

The ocean fronting trail is a loop that takes you from the parking lot, through a meadow trail to the ocean bluffs, along the cliffs, and back around through farming areas to the ranger station once again. It's a flat, easy, and eye pleasing couple of miles.