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The Trail CompanionSpring 2000Theme: San Francisco Bay Area WildflowersSix Sure-Fire Wildflower Hikes...continued Wilder Ranch State ParkThe key word here is yellow. This park has the most abundant and reliable displays of yellow brodiaea and golden mariposa lilies (Calochortus luteus) that we know. To find them, walk from the parking lot through the farm interpretive center, and through the tunnel that goes north under the highway.
For a shorter version of the hike, also with great displays of lily and brodiaea, proceed as before through the tunnel, but turn left on the Wilder Ridge Loop trail before reaching the multi-way intersection. (This trail is known as the Vaca trail on some maps.)
The last yellow treat is at the opposite end of the park. From a roadside pullout on Highway 1 at the west end of the park, walk toward the water and Four Mile Beach. From there, take the bluff top trail past agricultural fields about a mile eastward to Three Mile Beach. Unless the winter storms have claimed them, there you will find a sea of yellow bush lupines (Lupinus arboreus) below the bluffs. The massed aroma is heady, bees drone constantly, and small rabbits hide beneath the bushes. Round trip is about three miles, essentially level except for bluff scrambling. Getting there: Just west of Santa Cruz on Highway 1. Parking and interpretive center turnoff to the south, about two miles out of town. Hike distance and elevation change: various Best time for flowers: late May to mid-June On the Web:Wilder Ranch State Park on the California State Parks site.
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