The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, Aptos, CA

Thanks to the help of a trusted co-worker, I was able to wow a guest and myself with a relatively short day trip to this super scenic state park. It's near Aptos, so you can find things to do before and after in town, or in nearby towns, like Capitola.

The trail map you can get at the ranger station ($8/day parking pass) is pretty spotty, but a local "guide" was walking the trails and helped us stay on track. He also pointed out the trail down to the now felled "Advocate Tree". This was a priority on my list for the day.

The hiking is pretty up and down, with some challenges thrown in for good measure, like a stream crossing or two. (if for some reasons its rained a ton before you go, trails may be washed out).

Can you see the people below? These are big trees, Folks.

A short walk down to the Advocate Tree is worth it, hands down. This tree is HUGE and old too.

Basically all that brown is tree.

It's so big, there are portions of the trunk that a human can easily crawl/jump/stand in. It's very big.

If you feel up to it, you can also test your balance (and possibly cranium) with a long and high walk over this log. I did not make it all the way across, but I think I would like to try.

For sure put this state park on your list. Way cool. I'd go back any day.

Butano State Park, Pescadero, CA

[this location is actually up the road from Pescadero, but well worth seeking out some other spots along Highway 1]

Any ole Sunday is a good day for a new hike, right? I think that's true. This trip was to a smaller state park about 1.5 hours from my home, to a place that had designated trails and redwoods. We picked out some smaller loops and strung together what should have been about a 4-5 mile hike. Also note, much of the terrain by the coast here is up and down. There's not a ton of flat walking or topography to be had.

[I'm sure this idiot fell]

Love the ferns.

Only a small trickle of water through this stream, but nice to see none-the-less.

Those are horizontal spiderwebs all over this redwood. I'd never seen anything like it. No rhyme or reason to it that I'm aware of.

There are many felled redwoods along the trails as well. Some quite large, maybe 5-9' across at the root ball. Don't know why these are falling either, but we did come up with some hypotheses.

By far, this is THE largest slug I've seen to date. It's actually known as the Banana Slug, obviously!, and is easily 5-7" long as it slugs along the ground (that's my medium-sized hand above it for some context). I really had a hard time believing how big this was. I mean, it's the slug that eats like a meal, for sure.

All kinds of lichen and/or moss on many of the trees. I'm pretty sure every redwood area is inland from the ocean by one hill or mountain range. The weather then gets pretty cool and damp over the hill each day, and helps the redwoods take hold over centuries. I could easily be wrong, but I look forward to finding out on my on. Perhaps the California Academy of Sciences is next on the list? (https://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/giants-of-land-and-sea).

One note, we were not able to walk our planned route. Though I think my spidey-sense and general sense of direction is good, we did not follow the route we planned. I think this park could have better signs on their trails, but they may not have the funds to do so. We made it work regardless, but it's always nice to complete what you've planned.

Notes on Pescadero:
I'm pretty sure "pescadero" means "fisherman" in Spanish... which makes a lot of sense b/c this small, one stop sign town, is located about a mile or so from the Pacific ocean. It allows easy access to Butano and is also a cute little town in it's own right. We started with lunch here, but also found they offer coffee, shopping, and a local pub/bar too.

We visited Arcangeli Market for an excellent sandwich and then headed into the woods. The market takes debit/credit cards, has a real bakery offering, and was as busy as heck, for a small town Sunday. I grabbed their Chicken Club on foccochia, it was tasty.