Start by walking past the ranch house toward the big apple tree in the back yard. The trailhead is just beyond it. Whether you take shaded, woodsy Italian Trail or less-shaded Upper or Lower Chapparal, all eventually lead to Sunset Trail, which winds around a big sandhill outcropping (people have carved their names in the sandy cliffside here) where you’ll see Santa Cruz cypress as well as knobcone pine with their long skinny cones stuck to their trunks.
The view to the left is of the San Lorenzo Valley and the landfill (sorry). The trail leads up through chaparral that gives way to bay and oak woodland with occasional stands of redwood. A huge variety of mushrooms grow here in the winter, and wildflowers in spring and early summer. Beyond the benches overlooking the ranch complex, and beyond the new picnic table area installed in 2012 by Eagle Scouts (bless them), you’ll finally reach the bizarre dwarf redwood forest. The Sunset Trail bench at the top overlooks the entire park and out across Monterey Bay.
