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Published: April 19th 2009
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On the San Francisco peninsula near the coastal town of Half Moon Bay, up on the Skyline Ridge of the Santa Cruz mountains, are fabulous hiking trails through majestic redwood forests. This week, I resolved to explore as much of the Purisima Canyon Redwoods as I could. On Day One, I drove south a few miles from the junction of Highway 92 and CA 35 (Skyline Blvd) until I saw the Open Space Preserve sign. I parked the Jeep in the ample parking lot and headed for the trails. Some maps were available at the info board, so I picked one and chose the day's route. Today, I did a Purisima North Ridge to Whittmore Trail Loop, nearly 4 miles round-trip, dropping down from the 1600-ft. elevation at ridge top to the northern gulch of the canyon to about 800 feet for the descent, then coming back around on a connection to the Whittmore ridge trail for the loop back to parking lot. Along the trail were breathtaking, stupendous views, majestic vistas of redwood canyons, lush valleys and shimmering hills and all the way beyond to the blue Pacific Ocean out to the horizon line. While I didn't see a single
soul along the trail, two deers spotted me spotting them, and, about half a mile down the trail, I came face to face with a bobcat who walked away slowly when he saw me. Oh, and the weather was perefect.
After this exploratory hike, I drove a couple more miles south on Skyline(CA 35) from the main Purisima OSP parking lot to the Redwood Trail (Puri OSP #2). This was a short hike through a cool, moist redwood grove. This one actually had a few picnic tables along the trail for those who like to eat when they hike. This is an easy miler on fairly level ground with the trail snaking around the redwood growth.
I stopped at one of the tables along the trail and ate the sandwich I brought.
After the Redwood Trail, I crossed Skyline Blvd (very carefully) and entered a portion of the Skyline Trail, which was just a few steps east of the road. This led to a gate where the Chinquaping Trail began-a trail that goes down the east side the Sta Cruz mountains by Huddart Park. This too, was quiet & mellow, no one around just silent trees and the
occasional cawing bird. I did a 1.2 miler here through more redwoods and could see where the secondary-growth portion was starting when I decided to turn back and explore more of Skyline Blvd aka CA 35.
CA 35 is a meandering 2-lane blacktop road on the spine of the Santa Cruz mountains. From its junction with CA 92 (the one that goes to Half Moon Bay) southward, it is a very cool drive with lots of great views; in portions of it, you're literally driving through a redwood forest. From the Redwood Trailhead where I parked the Jeep, I continued south on CA 35. After 5 miles of snaking zigzag road with very rustic scenery, I got to the junction of CA 35 & CA 84 (another mountain highway). There, in the intersection yards away from a sign that said Woodside, CA, was a clearing with a cluster of quaint little shops (why does every mountain shop & store look quaint?) and across the street stood the famous Alice's Restaurant (some of you may remember the Arlo Guthrie song). And there it was, a line of Harley hogs and other sundry bikes out in the parking area...this was a biker hang-out, quite well-known. Got out and soaked in the very cool California mountain scene. By this time, it was t-shirt weather, so I peeled off the layers and, voraciously hungry, dove right into the menu. After lunch, I got on CA 84 eastward - another scenic, albeit a little more populated, mountain road portion - to US 280 where I headed north back to civilization. It is amazing that there are sanctuaries of solitude like Purisima just minutes away from Silicon Valley.
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Stephanie McCaffrey
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Good blog I will go there to hike
I was glad to find your story and hope to visit this place. I do most of my hiking with my husband in Pt Reyes at the Palomarin Trail the Estero Trail or the Pierce Point Trail. I also like to the Cascade trail in Fairfax near my home. I mtn bicycle the fire roads on the Bolinas Ridge, Lake Lagunitas and Phoenix Lake. We live in an amazing place.