The BLT Guidebook

A combination of good weather and days off led us to a Santa Cruz day trip.

Our first stop was Cat & Cloud in downtown Santa Cruz- we heard about them through Reddit and the James Hoffman YouTube Channel.

Delicious cappuccinos in hand, we backtracked to Felton, CA, where we were going to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend to go for a hike in Henry Crowell Redwoods State Park. It’s about 6 miles from Santa Cruz and is a great spot for people who just want to get outside or people who want to go hiking and don’t know where to start. You can park in the main lot, walk out of your car, and practically be on a small redwood loop that’s about a mile long.

The park is about an hour and a half- two hours away from us (pending traffic and all of that bay area congestion). Around 11 AM, we got to the park and paid the 10 dollar fee. It was busy and we got the last parking spot in the main lot. You can park on the street outside of the park and there are other entrance points, but I think it’s important to recognize that you are a visitor and even though 10 dollars is steep, it goes to paying for the upkeep of spaces that are used often.

This was my third or fourth time at the park, but I had only gone to picnic or walk around. This was the first time that I chose a trail through AllTrails ahead of time and scouted things out. We did the Henry Cowell Observation Deck Loop. It was ~5.3 miles and took us about 2 hours to hike it.

There was a combination of paved and sandy trails. You start in the small Redwood Grove Loop and then you branch out toward the River Trail. Right before you go down to the river, you turn to go up Pipeline Road toward the observation bench. This road is shaded and you can see clusters of redwoods in the forested areas.

This section of the road was relatively crowded. We reached the bench that looked over the forest and you can see the Pacific Ocean in the distance. We kept trekking up and were semi-out of the shaded area. About a mile later, we got to the Observation Deck, a completely open area at the top where you can take the stairs and see a 360-view. The sun was above us, so the ocean was just a massive blue strip in the distance. At this point, most of the people were weeded out.

On the way down, it was a sandy trail that looked like it could get dicey if there was just a rain. It was more bushy with some Manzanitas lining our way down. We were back in the redwoods shortly, crossing over a small stream. We had more of a chance to stop and look around with not that much traffic.

We eventually hit the trail where it branched from the river or up that paved road and we took it the same way we came, ending at the second half of the grove loop.

We finished around, and we ventured down into Santa Cruz. There were pockets of traffic like usual since it was such a nice day outside. We headed west toward Humble Sea Brewing Company and parked up the street a little ways. Luckily, we snagged a table on the side and enjoyed a good beer on a nice afternoon. Humble Sea is one of my favorite spots- it’s proximity to the ocean, it’s vibe, it’s beautiful blue painted outside with succulants making you feel like home.

Humble Sea is next door to an industrial-style area with pockets of wine tasting rooms, coffee shops, etc., wedged in. We walked over to try Verve Coffee Roasters, since I also heard a lot about them. Then we headed to Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery to end our afternoon.

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What’s your favorite coastal city? Leave a comment for me!