• Location: 101 N Big Trees Park Rd, Felton, CA 95018

• Phone: (831) 335-4598

• Website: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=546

• Pricing: $ ($10 parking fee)

• Hours: Sunrise to Sunset

 

Description: If you are in the  Santa Cruz area Henry Cowell Redwoods is a sight not to be missed! Giant redwoods, serene grounds, and even a train station make up this beautiful state park. I really wanted to take  a walk in nature when we took our weekend trip to Santa Cruz in August, but because my family includes a small baby, and two other members of the family who are not as completely in love with nature as I am, I didn't want to press a grand excursion in to the depths of tree covered mountains. So I looked up Henry Cowell State Park, there you can walk the loop trail which is less than a mile but still takes you all through the redwoods. All of my family agreed to join me, much to my surprise, and everyone in the group enjoyed it! The loop trail is located next to the vistor's center, which was also interesting to walk through and read about the history of the park. The trail is flat enough to bring a stroller if you  need to, and short enough that even your youngest walkers can walk at least a significant portion of  the trail. Each tree of significance is numbered and there is a guide at the beginning of the trail that tells you what each number is. Number 7 is the tallest tree- and boy is it! We were lucky enough to happen upon some deer eating off the path. They didn't mind us (I'm sure they are used to seeing people) and just kept eating as long as we were mainly quiet. Although my baby kept barking at them. We got  to see 7 deer in all which is our lucky number so that was amazing! It was still early in the day when we walked so not many people were around so it was very peaceful and serene walking through the trees. When the walk was over my daughter, who did not originally want to join, expressed how much she enjoyed the trail and said she'd like to do it again sometime. 

 

Highlights: We really lucked out running in to those deer! My youngest daughter's name (Ayala) means deer so it's our lucky animal and our oldest daughter was born on the 7th which is how many deer we saw so we took it to be a sign of good luck to see 7 deer on the path. 

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Tips: I advise to go early in the day, we got there by 10 and there weren't too many people so it was nice to take the walk in the quiet. But by the time we left the parking booth to get in was very backed up with lots of cars and the parking lot was full. The phrase is true the early bird gets the worm when it comes to family events and heavily populated areas.