Byrne-Milliron Forest 2015-12-01

Corralitos is a sleepy little town tucked away in Santa Cruz county that serves as the gateway to Byrne-Milliron Forest, a hidden gem for hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains. Byrne-Milliron Forest is a private land owned by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County who have generously made available the 402 acre forest to public. Take Freedom Blvd exit from Hwy 1 and follow these directions to reach the visitors parking lot. Do exercise extreme caution driving the final stretch by Roses of Yesterday & Today driveway, a narrow one-lane road.

The forest has several points of interest and I intended hiking by each of them today. Apollo and I started our hike by Byrne trail heading west. This is a wide dirt trail that is filled with foliage from trees pretty much all the way. Over the next mile, the trail gradually climbs up before reaching a vista point offering nice views of the Pajaro valley on the left. 

For the Glory...

A sharp climb from this point took us to the intersection of Milliron trail on the left. Milliron trail gradually descends and becomes narrow before it connects to the Great White Loop. Great White Loop is little more than 1/2 a mile, but the trail definitely has character. 

Great White Redwood

We did this loop in a clockwise direction. The single track trail descends rapidly and crosses couple of wooden bridges before climbing back up again and reaching the "Great White" Redwood Tree - a 600+ year old, 233 feet tall tree. It is impossible to capture how majestic the tree is in any picture. Apollo and I couldn't agree more with the sentiment expressed in the wooden bench: For the Glory, not the Gold.

We completed the loop by walking a segment that had a cautionary warning. The trail is extremely narrow and at several points, goes by the edge of ravines where I had to use the ropes for climbing. Apollo's leash on one hand and the ropes on the other meant exercising extreme caution climbing the 1/4 mile stretch to come back on Milliron trail. 

Back to Byrne / Milliron trail intersection, we headed up and took the Milliron shortcut to connect to Ridge Top Road. This short cut also has a section requiring the use of ropes for safe passage. 

Eagle in Tree Vista Pt.

We turned left at the Ridge Top Road to reach the second vista point: Eagle In Tree Vista. There are couple of wooden benches to rest as well as a picnic table at this spot which also offers great views of the Pajaro valley and the Monterrey bay.

Porcupine Hollow

We continued ahead by the narrow, single track Ridge Top trail that descends along the way before intersecting with Byrne trail. We turned left at this intersection to reach Porcupine Hollow. 

Going into this narrow trail took us to a spot with a makeshift memorial for Jeff Helmer, the caretaker of the forest who passed away in 2014. You would see Jeff's personal touch welcoming us at multiple points - whether it is a water can or interesting figurines by rest spots.

The next 1/2 mile by Leonard Bartle trail is simply remarkable. The narrow trail runs through a heavily wooded forest where several trees have fallen down. In multiple spots, I had to get under those trees to pass. 

Capping the experience is a creek crossing that has a sharp climb down using ropes to reach the creek level and crossing it by a makeshift redwood log to get to the other side.   

Byrne trail essentially is a full loop around the forest. We connected back to Byrne trail once again, walking a short stretch before taking Switchback trail. We could have walked back to the parking lot from here. Instead, I wanted to stop by the last point of interest in the park - AJ's Point of View. 

AJ's POV

AJ's Point can be reached multiple ways. From where Switchback trail intersects with Byrne trail, we took the Rattlesnake trail and Ruth Perry trail to connect once again to Byrne trail to reach the vista point. Without doubt, the views of the valley and the bay was simply breathtaking from here. There is also a formal plaque honoring the forest's caretaker for nearly three decades at AJ's Point.

We wrapped up our hike by taking the Rattlesnake trail to reach the parking lot. I would rate our 6 mile hike as difficult not because of the 1600 feet. we ended up climbing along the way, but several segments that required using ropes to safely pass. If you would like to avoid those segments, it is possible to walk the entire forest by using just Byrne trail - and hit AJ's point along the way.

More pictures from our hike today.
#Hiking #HikingWithDogs #ByrneMillironForest #LandTrustOfSantaCruz