Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/21/26
10:00 am - 11:30 am
Location
Wilder Ranch State Park
Categories
Walk – Wilder Ranch State Park (Old Cove Landing), Santa Cruz
Meet at one of two places:
- 1. At the carpool location in Los Gatos* at 9:20 am. Northside Parking Lot on CA-9 between University and Santa Cruz Avenues. Sign reads: “Free Unlimited Parking – Northside Lot.” Take CA-17 south toward Los Gatos. Exit at CA-9 Los Gatos/Saratoga and continue west on CA-9 for 0.3 mile to the parking lot on your right, just before Santa Cruz Avenue.
Or…
- 2. At Wilder Ranch State Park at 10 am. If you drive there directly, take CA-17 south from San Jose to Santa Cruz, then CA-1 north toward Half Moon Bay. The park entrance is on the coast (left) side of CA-1, 2 miles west of the last stoplight in Santa Cruz at Western Avenue.
Parking is $9 per car for seniors. Leave your picnic lunch in a cooler in the car, but take water and a snack for the walk. You may park free on CA-1 (secure your belongings), but it’s a quarter mile walk to the parking lot. 1401 Coast Rd, Santa Cruz, CA. Open daily 8 am – 7 pm.
The walk begins at the Wilder Ranch State Park parking lot at 10 am.
For 100 years, Wilder Ranch was a dairy ranch, and many of the residential and working buildings have been restored as a museum. We will take an easy walk on the Old Cove Landing Trail to a scenic overlook above Wilder Beach, a protected wildlife preserve, and bluffs overlooking the Pacific, with spur trails to Fern Grotto and Sand Plant beaches. There are spectacular views of the ocean and backcountry; we could see harbor seals, shorebirds, raptors, deer, otters, dolphins, and humpbacks if we’re so lucky. The loop continues back to the parking lot, where we will have a picnic on the grounds of the historic 1897 Victorian home, an 1859 Gothic Revival farmhouse, an 1896 water-powered machine shop, rodeo arena, barns, and other historic buildings.
