A beautiful hike along the bluffs next to Pacific Ocean, providing access to multiple beaches en route.

Location: Wilder Ranch State Park

» Official Trail Map: Decent qualit map. No mileage information for trail sections.

» PeasePress Map: Trails of Santa Cruz: Excellent quality map showing various parks in the Santa Cruz area.

To Ohlone Bluff Trail: From the Four Mile Beach parking lot on Highway 1, walk about 0.3 miles towards the Pacific Ocean to reach a beach. If you walk south along the beach, there are interesting rock formations to explore. Waves come crashing against these rocks, allowing you to shoot nice photographs. However, to hop onto the bluff trail, you would have to go back and look for a trail that takes you to the top of the cliffs adjoining the coastline.

Beaches along Ohlone Bluff Trail: Ohlone Bluff Trail meanders next to the Pacific, all the way to Old Cove Landing Trail that takes you back to Park HQ. Several beaches are accessible from the trail: Three-Mile Beach, Strawberry Beach and Sand Plant Beach. Consult Virtual Parks Trail Map for their locations. Some of these beaches require careful scrambling going down or climbing up.

Park HQ to Tunnel: For this section of the route, see the Inset Map on the bottom right of Virtual Parks Trail Map. From the Park HQ onwards, follow Coast Road, then turn left onto a road leading you to Interpretive Center / Cultural Preserve, which showcases ecological information related to Wilder Ranch. Walking past this building, you will see, you will come across some other buildings and a tunnel going under Highway 1. The end point of this hike is a parking lot on Highway 1, adjacent to the tunnel.

Location: 0.2 miles north of 3800 Cabrillo Highway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 . No street address. Parking area is visible in Google Maps if you zoom in sufficiently.

Directions: Please study Google Maps to understand where the parking lot for Four Mile Beach is located. There is no sign at the parking lot to inform you that it is for Four Mile Beach.

Google Maps:

Parking Fees: None (last visited: Jan 2012)

Capacity: About 20 cars may be parked here.

Latitude: 36.970222     Longitude: -122.119415

Location: 1401 Coast Road, Santa Cruz, CA . No street address. Parking area is visible in Google Maps if you zoom in sufficiently.

Directions: Please study Google Maps carefully. There is a large parking lot on the shoulder of Highway 1 in between the two points where Coast Rd intersects Highway 1. Adjacent to this parking lot is a "tunnel" going below Highway 1. The tunnel is visible in Google Map.

Google Maps:

Parking Fees: None (last visited: August 2011)

Capacity: About 20 cars may be parked here.

Latitude: 36.962135     Longitude: -122.084944