Santa Cruz Mountains Trails: La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve

Exploring the northern part of La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve requires some advanced planning. You need to contact the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District office to request a permit. This permit includes the combination to the locked gate at the end of Allen Road. There is room for only seven cars in the preserve, so carpooling may be necessary for groups. Getting to the entrance involves driving cautiously down Bear Gulch Road, which is a narrow and winding one-lane road. You then turn left onto Allen Road, which is also narrow. Watch for cars coming in the opposite direction.

Because access to this preserve is limited, the only people in the preserve yesterday were with my College of San Mateo class. Be aware that what passes for trails in this preserve are either dirt roads or faint and unmarked paths that are overgrown with grass. Be sure to check yourself out for ticks, especially in the Spring.

In the late 1940's an airline pilot, named Dyer, returning from Hawaii looked down on these open grassy fields in the Santa Cruz Mountains and decided he wanted to live there. He drove to the property and found that it was for sale. Soon after buying it Mr. Dyer's wife loaded up a truck with all their possessions and drove across the country to their new home. The current owner of the house told us that the truck is now inside the concrete garage near the house.

We walked west from the house and parking lot to a telephone pole marked by the number 8 near a big manzanita. This marks the beginning of the trail that leads downhill about a tenth of a mile to the biggest redwood tree on the property. We measured the circumference and calculated that it is 12.2 feet in diameter.

We then retraced our steps to a path that heads south on a ridge. I caught a yellow-bellied racer snake on the trail. We continued on this old ranch road to Vista Point, where we enjoyed spectacular views of the La Honda Creek watershed, which flows into Pescadero Creek. Despite fog on the coast we were able to get a glimpse of the ocean. From there we retraced our steps to a faint old ranch road trail to the left. This route takes a steep descent to a wooded area where we ate lunch. At our lunch spot I caught a gopher snake and a rubber boa, and some of us saw a ringneck snake.

After lunch we headed uphill on another old ranch/logging road which returned us to our starting point. This is a very ecologically diverse preserve. It contains a combination of redwood, Douglas fir, bay, madrone, and oak woodlands, as well as large areas of open grassland. There were still many wildflowers in bloom, including Douglas iris, flax, checker bloom, globe lilly, Ithurial's spear, California poppies, and elderberry. We hiked in a small part of a much larger preserve, most of which is not yet open to the public.