A few weeks ago I went hiking with my family in the Santa Cruz mountains. I have lived in this area for more than 20 years and never hiked these beautiful mountains so close to my home.
We went to Castle Rock State Park. After parking you enter a temperate forest.
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| Temperate forest near entrance to Castle Rock State Park |
Initially you go down into a moist valley and then climb steeply on the other side to see this view.
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| Clouds from the ocean form fog in the Santa Cruz mountains |
The moisture that keeps the temperate forest green comes from fog that comes in from the Pacific Ocean marine layer. This fog is a year-round effect. Additional moisture comes from rain in the winter.
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| Castle Rock State Park attracts many rock climbers |
Castle Rock State Park has several areas with large porous rocks that attract climbers from all over the Bay Area. This climber is on one of the larger rocks in the park as you can see below.
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| You can just make out the rock climber at the top |
The views as you hike are quite spectacular. You can see down towards Santa Cruz and across Monterey Bay.
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| Looking down towards Santa Cruz and across Monterey Bay. |
Across the Monterey Bay, you can just make out on the horizon far to the South the hills that form the Monterey Peninsula.
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| Wildflower |
Although it was already August during our hike, the unusually cold and wet summer kept the mountains covered in wildflowers for the whole summer.
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| Moss covered tree |
If you have read previous entries in my blog, you know that I love images of trees. This old Black Oak was covered in moss.
That concludes our brief tour of Castle Rock State Park with its varied ecosystem ranging from temperate forest of Douglas Fir, Redwoods and Black Oak to chaparral in the higher areas that were clear cut many years ago.
In addition to the wonderful views available in this hike, this park is great fun for children who like to climb rocks!
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