Santa Cruz was a great place to visit!
We walked through the Redwood Grove Nature Trail at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park where there are magnificent old growth redwoods - awesome! Pictures just don’t do this area justice, nor can I describe the overwhelming peace you feel as you pass through the trees. One word of warning - all the vegetation in this park is protected so DON’T pick any of the wildflowers! Kids that don’t read (and some grownups who must have a problem with comprehension) were bawled out by eagle-eyed rangers, who were nice about it but firm with their lecture.
In this park, dogs are allowed on the Meadow Trail at Hwy 9 and on the Graham Hill Trail from the campground; both trails lead to Pipeline Road, a 3.3 mile paved road closed to public vehicles. Dogs are also allowed in the picnic area and campground but not the river or streams. They must be leashed at all time.
Of course, we went to the world-famous Boardwalk - great fun to see and the grandkids loved it, but I didn’t take my camera. (Don’t know how I forgot that.) I had really wanted to ride the carousel, which was celebrating its 100th birthday but every time we went over by it, it wasn’t working and people were trying to fix it. Well, what can you expect from such an old piece of running machinery? Walked over to the pier for lunch at Woody’s - a cool joint. That evening, watched Lost Boys since it had been filmed at the Boardwalk. Warning - the movie shows Nanook, the pet husky, at the walk, but don’t take your dog because there is a NO PET policy in place - no dogs allowed.
On Friday we rode the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow-Gauge Railroad, which dogs can ride on and Archie loved, as he told you last week. It was great fun riding an old train through the redwoods and listening to the piped-in narration about the area we were seeing.
We made the17-mile drive at Pebble Beach while we were in the area. Wow - if you ever get a chance, check this out. The area is really worth seeing. We stopped at Shepherd’s Knoll, Huckleberry Hill, Restless Sea vista point, Point Joe, China Rock, Bird Rock, Seal Rock, Fanshell Overlook, the Lone Cypress, and the Ghost Tree.
The day before we left, we visited Natural Bridges State Park - kind of a misnomer since there's only one bridge left after years of erosion. We got there at high tide so couldn’t totally see the one “natural” bridge that remains. We walked over to the butterfly trail and it had been damaged in the last storm and was being repaired, so couldn’t see much of that either, although it really looked intriguing. I did find a T-shirt made in the USA so bought that.
There is a lot to see in Santa Cruz - I put it on my list for a return trip!
