Close to Home

There won't be many road trips in America this year. Not with the price of gasoline approaching $5.00. Maybe one can actually get a room in Yosemite Vallley. So close to home and close to Nature has its own appeal. Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz, filled up the gas tank for $60 (and that's regular) and drove up to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the part that is on Waddell Beach, off Highway One. You know you are there when you round the curve and see the kite surfers. Parking on the side of the road across from the beach, we entered another world.

Fuzzy black bees wallowed in true California poppies. Pale blue butterflies and pristine white moths sampled majestic queen lace. We passed a fallen log and stopped to count its rings. A pair of adolescent quail tottered down the trail ahead of us, crests bobbing with each step. The wild blackberries were almost ripe, the hedges of primroses beginning to blossom. The trail was wide enough for the ranger's jeep, paved in parts, and shaded. A spring emerged on the side of the trail, just large enough to gurgle. We saw a family on bicycles, a couple of women emerging from the forest, intent on their hike but also talking briskly. A walk of about a mile takes you to a bridge over Waddell Creek and a farm deep in the canyon.

We could have gone further, as this trail ascends miles into the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains, but we had done enough. We turned around and retraced our steps, seeing something new in each vista. By the time we turned the last corner and saw the windsurfers again we were grateful for the ocean breeze. A fine adventure, and still time enough in the day to visit a farmer's market and a winery in Los Gatos.