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Tribune News Service

It is a life, death and disaster hike. Yet it is also a stroll in the park.
The route in question is the Redwood Loop Trail, part of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in the US state of California.
Take one lap around the 1km (0.62-mile) loop and you will see, amid the fading ravages of fire, what a vast difference four years can make in the natural world.
The state park, California’s oldest, is also the largest stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco. It was 97 per cent burned in 2020, when fire erupted in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Tens of thousands of trees were incinerated, and most of the park remains closed, its infrastructure – including 150 campsites – destroyed.

Yet after four years of regrowth – which included drought conditions, followed by atmospheric river storms in 2023 – visitors can walk amid countless rising stalks, many reaching six metres (20 feet) high.
“You’ll see shoots of green coming off these black trunks throughout the park,” said Will Fourt, senior park and recreation specialist for the state park system’s Santa Cruz district.
Despite early fears, most of the park’s redwoods survived, Fourt said, noting that they can resprout not only from their base and branches but also from their trunks – something most conifers cannot do.
By one estimate, just 3 per cent of the park’s Douglas fir trees remain.
Among the redwoods, “the new growth that’s coming up from the roots is just amazing”, said senior visitor services aide Debbie Martwick. “It was just all grey and black here for seven months after the fire. It is so uplifting and inspiring, the resilience of nature.”

The park has been gradually reopening since July 2022.
The Redwood Loop Trail is a flat route that includes some of the park’s biggest and oldest trees. You see tiny sprouts inching out of fallen trunks, head-high green shoots overshadowing charred remnants, and towering old trees whose branches are greening again, despite jet-black charred bark below.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park was created in 1902 at a time when dozens of timber companies were racing to fell as many tall trees in the region as they could.
Local activists bought six square miles of redwood forest, then lobbied state officials for further measures to protect the area from logging. Today, that forest is still dominated by the same trees, some of them more than 90 metres tall and 1,000 years old.
But on August 16, 2020, lightning strikes started a fire that blackened 350 square kilometres (135 square miles) in and around the park, which covers 72 square kilometres. The flames killed one person. Thirty-seven days passed before firefighters could contain the fire.
There’s still a lot of beauty there
Debbie Martwick, Big Basin Redwoods State Park senior visitor services aide
Today, of the park’s 137km of hiking trails, Fourt said, about 10km are open, with several more kilometres expected to reopen this winter. Of Big Basin’s 48km of fire roads (open to hikers, cyclists and equestrians), about 40km are open. It may be years, however, before hikers can again walk the popular Berry Creek Falls Trail and Sequoia Trail.
At the site of the old park headquarters building, built in log-cabin style by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936, cement steps now lead to nothing at all. Its campgrounds are not expect to reopen for several years. A new facilities plan is due in 2025.
Before the fire, Martwick said, the park attracted 1 million yearly visitors, who often filled hundreds of parking spots, many of them along fire roads that are now closed. Now the park gets about a tenth as many visitors – 3,000 to 9,000 per month.
Seeing the park today “can be dramatic for people who remember the park as it was”, Fourt said. “But there’s still a lot of beauty there.”
For now, a visit to Big Basin makes sense as part of a trip to the Santa Cruz area, but not as the centrepiece.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other things to do nearby, including visiting the city and coastline of Santa Cruz as well as several state parks, and the mountain communities of Scotts Valley, Felton, Ben Lomond, Brookdale and Boulder Creek.
Visitors can also check out Rancho del Oso, the coastal portion of the park that lies off Highway 1 in Davenport, about 27km north of Santa Cruz.
Though Rancho del Oso currently features just three short sections of trail – less than 1.5km each – the area includes Waddell State Beach, one of the top windsurfing spots in North America, as well as a welcome centre, a nature and history centre, and six campsites.
Nearby state parks include Año Nuevo State Park, Butano State Park (where many areas are still closed), Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Natural Bridges State Beach and Wilder Ranch State Park.
Where to eat
In Ben Lomond, Aroma Restaurant has indoor and outdoor tables, with a pair of fireplaces in the rustic but stylish dining room.
In Scotts Valley, Laughing Monk brewpub has plenty of bar food, including bourbon burgers and sweet potato fries, plus brunch on weekends.
Where to stay
In Santa Cruz, Sea & Sand Inn stands on a cliff above the ocean, next door to the pricier Dream Inn. Rates often start around US$150 on weekdays, US$280 at weekends.
In Santa Cruz, Mission Inn & Suites is an affordable option on Mission Avenue, about two miles from the UC Santa Cruz campus. Weekday rates often dip below US$100.


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Sempervirens Falls in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The park in the US state of California was 97 per cent burned in 2020 when fire erupted in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Photo: Shutterstock Images

On August 16, 2020, lightning strikes started a fire that blackened 350 square kilometres in and around Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

Giant redwood trees at Big Basin Redwoods National Park. Photo: Shutterstock

Sempervirens Falls in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Photo: Shutterstock

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Travel & Leisure

A trek through California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park reveals towering charred trees whose branches are greening again with life


A trek through California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park reveals towering charred trees whose branches are greening again with life.
