Play: A Santa Cruz coastal hike means a walk on the Wild(er) side — plus beer and burgers.
There are certain elements that make a good stroll all the more elemental. Sunlight, gobs of it, even if it’s a chilly winter day. Puffy, gauzy, wispy, clumped clouds — the mix — wheeling through the heavens. The sea in motion, for its roars, its lickings, its sparkle, its thunder. Rugged cliffs that show the complex work of ocean and time.
And beer and burgers at the end.
There’s a ticket to this fantasy, and it’s cheap: Start with admission to Wilder Ranch State Park, just a nudge north of Santa Cruz, where the cliffside vistas are dramatic and the walking therapeutic. Wilder is a historic site housing an 1800s dairy ranch, with farm animals and interpretive center. There are more than 35 miles of trails, many of the most rugged ones on the eastern side of the coast.
But since I’ve a bit of a balky hip, our trip was on the milder western bluffs, knifed and chopped by the relentless waves, making a succession of picturesque vistas for visitors. Pick up a park trail map at the entrance kiosk or nearby ranger
station and you’ll see that the Old Cove Trail and Ohlone Bluff Trail are easily accessed from the main parking lot. Walk a bit past a broad, treestudded gorge and the view opens up to a wide cove with, on a good day, waves blasting its cliffs.
The trail is fundamentally flat, though it can be rutted at points. There are benches where you can pause and take in the stirring panoramas.
The bluffs can be windy, so check ahead on predicted winds. Breezy or not, press on and you’ll be treated to a succession of sliced and hewn coves and inlets, with great views of wave-frothing walls and coastal benchlands getting a good beatdown.
If you like your sedimentary cliff layers dramatically exposed, Wilder will tune your engine.
You can walk coastside for several miles and eventually loop back to the lot, but we turned around so that we got in about 2.5 miles total — and avoided up-close viewing of the Brussels sprouts fields to come. (Not a fan.)
Do visit the restored ranch if you hanker to converse with goats, horses and people in period clothing giving living history demonstrations.
That’s fun, but if you would rather eat butter than churn it, hie on back to your car and drive north a scenic 20 miles or so to the Highway 1 Brewing Company, located about 10 miles south of Pescadero.
Though the joint is on the east side of the highway, when the ocean is stirred, like it was when we visited, you can catch those foamy breakers doing their thing.
You can also catch a solid lunch at the brewery, along with some house-brewed and local beers to soften any of your cares.
They’ve got starters and salads, sandwiches and barbecue, and fish and chips — my choice — done right: whitefish expertly fried in a beer batter so it was crispy on the outside and light and grease-free inside. The caper-dill remoulade was a distinct plus.
Double-plus was my tangy and complex Wave Rider red rye IPA. My gal Al had a smoked portobello mushroom burger that was deep and weighty, along with a taster of an equally deep Storm Surge stout.
And, no jive: The people here are as good and friendly as the food. We’ve been a couple of times, and always had easygoing chats with the crew.
A couple visiting from Wisconsin fell into a casual conversation with folks all around the bar. Cheers!
So, walk your little tootsies off at Wilder and wash off any walk weariness at Highway 1 Brewing. That’s the day-trip combo plate, and comes recommended.