Henry Cowell Redwoods SP
Directions: From CA 17 in Santa Clara County, drive southwest towards Santa Cruz. At Scotts Valley take Mount Hermon Road driving northwest for about 3.5 miles. When Mount Hermon Road ends at Graham Hill Road, turn right. After just 0.1 mile, Graham Hill Road ends at a traffic light at CA 9 in Felton. Continue straight on Felton Empire Road. Drive about 0.6 mile on Felton Empire Road, and turn right into the poorly signed trailhead.
Parking Fee: None at this entrance but there are also no facilities!
The parking lot, ain’t no bathrooms here folks!
Getting the pre-hike scoop
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Everyone’s waiting for me to make it up that hill!
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On Saturday, April 28, 2007 I joined with the Meetup.com “Let's hike and maybe take a break if we get tired” hiking group for a hike at Henry Cowell State Park.
The hike route: Bennett Creek Trail -> Fall Creek Trail -> Big Ben Trail -> Truck Trail -> Ridge Trail -> Bennett Creek Trail and end.
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: 5.46 miles
Total ascent: 1350 ft
Trailhead Elevation:
Max Elevation: 1674 ft
Moving time: 2 hours
Moving Average: 2.7 mph
Overall average: 1.3 mph
Time stopped: 2 hours
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
28-Apr-2007
Start time: 1:30 PM
Weather: Clear and sunny, temperatures in the upper 70’s to low 80’s.
Water consumed: 1 liter plus 600 ml Gatorade.
Finish time: 4:30 PM
Total time: 4 hours
Beauty: Very.
Wildlife seen: None but then hiking with a large group probably scares off the animals.
Difficulty: This should have been a pathetically easy one for me but I struggled on it.
I don’t know, I must be getting old. My last hike out with the Stanford Outing Club (SOC) at Point Reyes left me with a bad case of tendonitis in my right leg and out of action. I missed a couple of great hikes with the SOC after that plus a chance to go backpacking at Henry Coe for the Backcountry weekend all because of the tendonitis in my leg. I guess it was just as well as I didn’t have all the backpacking equipment I would need for it anyway.
But after that 24 mile hike at Point Reyes I went to my podiatrist the following Monday and got my feet scanned for custom orthotics which I now have and they feel great with the arch support my feet have been craving. Unfortunately I didn’t have the orthotics in time for this hike but it was a short enough at about 5.5 miles that I didn’t really need them.
For this hike I joined up with a great group of people from the Meetup.com “Let's hike and maybe take a break if we get tired “ hiking group. There were around 50 people that showed up for the hike and Maura, the hike organizer divided us up into about 4 groups of hikers. I went with the slowest group and I was the slowest of the bunch!
I would have thought that given all of the hiking I have done this year, with all of the hills I have climbed, this hike should have been a piece of cake for me. It wasn't. Maybe I was still healing from Point Reyes, or maybe it was because it was kind of a warm day but I struggled badly on this hike and everyone else had to wait on me to get up that 1300 feet or so of elevation gain.
But it was worth it. Henry Cowell is a lovely park. It’s difficult to take pictures in because of the high contrast between the light and dark areas but it is certainly a great place for a nice hike and I had a great time. But rather than blab on about it, let’s look at the pictures.
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
