The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park
Location: Just north of HWY 1 in Aptos, CA
Date Visited: April 2014
Trails Hiked: Aptos Creek Fire Road to Loma Prieta Grade to Bridge Creek back to Loma Prieta Grade (called Historic Loop)
Distance Hiked: 6.6 miles
What began as an excuse to escape the South Bay heat morphed into a beautiful adventure on one of the longest hikes I’ve done in a while.
They might as well call this “Sorrel Park” with the (probably) hundreds of thousands of sorrel blanketing the area.
The park is a little tricky to find, behind the train tracks and down what looks like a dirt parking lot to some shops by the road. Keep driving and you’ll eventually pass the entrance. Make sure to self-pay at the entrance station, or suffer the agony of driving all the way down the dirt road, only to discover you were supposed to pay up front. Make sure to bring exact change ($8 of this writing) or suffer the agony of leaving the park to get something at Starbucks just for change and then coming all the way back. Yeah, it took me a good 30 minutes to get situated in the park from all my mistakes.
The first half of the trail is like many others in the area: It leads you through a variety of forests, climbing over and rounding the sides of hills. Plenty of unofficial side trails add variety to the possible paths you can take, passing through some very intimate scenery as well as wide, open forest space.
You know I can’t resist a good mushroom cluster.
Horsetail growing in a rare open patch of sunlight.
Everything is so green!!
A little fish in the creek!
Some of the trees were going in some verrrry odd shapes,.
At the northern most point of the trail lies the half mile side trail to Maple Falls. Along this route, the trail essentially devolves into a non-trail at certain points, making me question if I was still on the trail at all. I kept happening upon giant fallen trees or steep boulders and thinking to myself, “No, there’s no way they would expect me to make my way over that, would they?”
Oh yes. They would. And they do.
Gorgeous little clusters of plant life on the rocks near the creek look so tranquil.
The peaceful non-trail along the creek.
All that climbing and crossing the creek is completely worth it, though. This part of the trail felt the most wild, adventurous, and remote. You get rewarded for that extra effort with the sight of Maple Falls, a small but tall and lush waterfall. A smaller, tiny fall to the right comprised of water trickles provided relief from the heat, since it was possible to stand under it.
One of several millipedes crawling around the trail, along with banana slugs.
The second half of the hike was somewhat of a blur, mainly because I was getting so tired that I tried to distract myself from the pain. My knees and hips have aged much faster than the rest of me so downhill is just as hard as uphill.
The Loma Prieta grade, though, is full of redwoods and curving paths carved out of the side of the hills. This makes for a very fulfilling and scenic, albeit very long, walk.
Planks making the ground by the cliff more sturdy.
I did NOT check out the old growth trail at the entrance to the park, which is a much easier 1.8 mile loop that looked very promising. I’m sure it is recommended as an essential but my knees could not handle another step so I have to save it for next time.
Wandering in the Wind 