Nicknamed “Surf City”, Santa Cruz’s identity ranges from a college town, distinctive for its thriving counterculture, to big Redwood-groves, omnipresent greenbelts, and barking sea lions. This trip leans towards organic farms, the flourishing artisanal beer and wine scene, as well as long stretches of free-spirited, primo singletrack. Wilder Ranch State Park, a 700-acre coast-hugging preserve, boasts beautiful trails amongst Brussels sprout fields and towering Redwoods. Respectfully built around a 19th-century dairy ranch, Gothic Revival farmhouses and a Victorian residence, Wilder Ranch is as much about cultural moorings as it is easy-on-the-eyes pastoral.
From regal structures to beachcombing, big bluffs to inland canyons, you will explore it all; places that come with their own informal history lesson. From offbeat tolerant Santa Cruz, you'll head in a figuratively far different direction. At the Monterrey Bay beachfront, you will find the immaculately groomed Fort Ord. It was here that over one million U.S servicemen trained from 1917-1944. As Wilder Ranch served as the opening act, the thick forest and cornucopia of trails you'll find at the “playground” in Soquel Demonstration State Park will flat-out steal the show.
From Mexican land grant turned logging company reserve turned state forest (1988), the Soquel Demo is now the Bay Area’s number one mountain bike park. The 19-signature trails here total 43km (27mi) they range from the advanced Braille DH (with bypasses) to six different Flow Trails, (think more intermediate). The highest trail reaches 780m (2558ft) conversely the downhills total 22km (14mi) of distance. That’s a lot of whoop.
From 40,000-acres of lush coastal preserves to great spans of giant Redwoods, “Cool” Santa Cruz to the rich literary history around Monterrey, this plum-riding destination energies and harmonic resonances is unlike any other.