This area in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains has the Bay Area’s best redwoods. It corresponds to the Big Basin and Castle Rock map from Redwood Hikes Press.
| Rating | Length, miles | Climbing, feet | Trail name |
| Big Basin Redwoods State Park | |||
| ★ | 5.2 | 870 | The Meteor Trail |
| ★ | 2.7 | 500 | The Dool Trail |
| ★ | 0.6 | 10 | The Redwood Loop Nature Trail |
| Butano State Park | |||
| ★ | 10.3 | 1820 | Butano Fire Road and Doe Ridge |
| Castle Rock State Park | |||
| ★ | 4.8 | 1010 | The Saratoga Gap and Ridge Trail Loop |
| Fremont Older Open Space Preserve | |||
| ★★ | 1.6 | 370 | Hunters Point |
| Sanborn County Park | |||
| ★ | 4.8 | 1010 | The Todd Creek Redwoods |
| ★ | 10.5 | 1310 | The John Nicholas Trail |
| Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve | |||
| ★ | 7.1 | 1550 | Madrone Knoll |
| Rating | Open | Price | Campground name |
| Sanborn County Park | |||
| ★★ | Apr–Oct | $18 | Sanborn Park Campground |
| Rating | Open | Price | Campground name |
| Butano State Park | |||
| ★★★ | All year | $15 + $8 | Butano Trail Camp |
| Castle Rock State Park | |||
| ★★ | All year | $15 + $8 | Castle Rock Trail Camp |
| ★★ | All year | $15 + $8 | Waterman Gap Trail Camp |
Used to be the Bay Area’s best redwood park, but since a major wildfire swept through in 2020, the park is heavily fire damaged and still mostly closed.
A little-visited park with the feel of a remote wilderness. Mostly second growth, but has a few acres of old-growth uplands, now severely fire damaged.
A developed park, with campgrounds and picnic areas on a hillside carpeted with second-growth redwoods. A few small old-growth redwoods remain near Skyline Ridge.
One of the newer parks on the peninsula. The trails don’t actually have a lot of redwoods, but what they have is pretty nice.
On one of the highest ridges in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Castle Rock has sweeping views of the mountains and rock climbing on tufa formations.
A small preserve in the low grassy hills outside Saratoga that features a short walk to a fine viewpoint over Silicon Valley. The longer trails have a lot of horse manure.
© 2022 David Baselt
