Natural History Wanderings

Big Basin Redwoods is California’s oldest state park.

It has the largest continuous stand of ancient Coast Redwoods south of San Francisco. It includes old growth and recovering redwood forest, with mixed conifer, oaks, chaparral, and riparian habitats.  There are waterfalls and banana slugs.

Banana Slugs

Fog and forests make for a cool  summer hiking environment on the 80 plus miles of hiking and backpacking trails.

Information websites on the Park

• www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540
• www.bigbasin.org/
• www.santacruzstateparks.org/parks/bigbasin/

There are Naturalist Guided Walks on the Redwood Loop Trail from March through November: Saturdays and Sundays 11:00 AM and 2:00

Three Hikes in Big Basin by Bay Area Hiker:

• Hike to Buzzard’s Roost: www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/bigbasin1.html
• Waterfall Loop: http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/bigbasin/waterfallloop.htm
• Rancho Del Oso to Berry Creek Falls: http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/bbrdo.html

More Hiking from Every Trail  http://www.everytrail.com/destination/big-basin-redwoods-state-park

A useful book on the flora of the park is Plants of Big Basin Redwoods State Park and the Coastal Mountains of Northern California by Mary Beth Cooney-Lazaneo (Author), Kalthleen Lyons (Author), and Howard King (Photographer)

Wings Over the Basin (an annual weekend of guided birding and butterfly walks and field trips) http://wingsoverthebasin.org/

See  Wikipedia site for brief summaries of flora and fauna of the park as well as human history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Basin_Redwoods_State_Park

Photo Sites of Big Basin

• professional photographer QT Luong, http://www.terragalleria.com/california/california.big-basin-redwoods.html
• Virtual Parks website: http://www.virtualparks.org/parks/bbrsp-text-list.html

Banana Slugs photo by Bradey Allen  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banana-slugs-big-sur.jpg