Weekly
Walker
Jackson Flats Trail
Butano State Park
"Wealth I ask not, hope, nor
love, Nor a friend to know me; All I ask, the heaven above And the road below
me." - Robert Louis
Stevenson
Directions: South on Highway 1 to
Pescadero Road. Turn left and drive to Cloverdale Road (2.5 miles). Turn right
and continue 4.2 miles to park entrance. The entrance kiosk is less than half a
mile. From the Peninsula, you can also take Highway 84 (La Honda Road), cross
Skyline and watch for signed cutoff to Pescadero. Turn left on Cloverdale Road
a couple miles east of Pescadero.
Grade: Easy. A few hundred feet
total.
Distance: About two miles.
Time: One hour.
Special
Conditions:
Get ready to pay a small day-use fee if the kiosk is open. Picnic tables are
available along the main road. Campsites are available on a first-come,
first-served basis, but you can reserve space by calling Reserve America at
1-800-444-7275. No dogs allowed on trails. This is a California State Park. For
information, call 650-879-2040.
Picture a steep-sided canyon loaded with old and second-growth
redwoods basking in a magical rain forest that produces a perennial harvest of
moss-covered Douglas fir, ferns, banana slugs, and newts. A place where the
ground is always damp and cool and where Little Butano Creek runs year around.
This is Butano State Park, a 3,200-acre preserve that is dark and majestic in
the canyon leading to open grassland, oak woodland, and chaparral as you hike
to the ridgelines.
Butano
(say "Boo-tano") became part of the State Park System in 1961. Going
back in history, the area was first inhabited by the Ohlone Indian Tribe. In
his book entitled " The Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Book" (eighth
edition, published by the Oak Valley Press), Tom Taber makes an interesting
statement about the Ohlone Tribe. On page 37, he notes that "The Ohlone
usually avoided the shady groves for both practical and religious reasons. They
felt the same life force that many hikers still experience today and were
convinced that redwoods were haunted by powerful spirits. Also, because edible
plants, for both man and deer, are rare in the redwood groves, the Indians
found happier hunting grounds elsewhere."
Perhaps the Indians favored the open
area at the mouth of the canyon or the sides of the canyon. Early settlers also
chose the higher, dryer, warmer canyon sides. In the mid 1800s, the Jackson
family settled in the Jackson Flats area on the north side of the canyon, and
the Taylor and Mullen families settled on the south or Goat Hill side. The
canyon was extensively logged of redwoods until about 1900, and today only a
few of the giants remain.
This week's hike is a short and easy
introduction to the many wonders of Butano. Park next to the entrance kiosk and
start at the Jackson Flats trailhead. The trail passes through tall shrubs and
young fir as it gently switchbacks along the hillside. Note the large Douglas
fir and even some shrubs loaded with moss and picture the moist ocean air
moving gently through the forest, condensing on branches and needles providing
nourishment to these long strands of nature's beard. Soon the trail levels out
and skirts a group of large redwoods and the forest changes to tall
second-growth redwoods, fir, and tanbark oak. A couple hundred-feet below, you
will catch sight of the narrow paved park road leading to the Ben Ries
Campground (named after the park's first ranger). In less than one mile, you
will intersect with the Mill Ox Trail, but just before the trail passes by a
grove of ancient and new-growth redwoods. A bench overlooking the grove is just
off the trail--a great place for lunch. We took the Mill Ox Trail quickly
descending back to the canyon floor, passed over little Butano Creek and turned
right at the road. You can also cross over the road and take the Six Bridges
Trail back to the trailhead, but the road route allows you to view an old dam
with a water diversion wooden/concrete flume to provide irrigation to the
outside valley. The dam is constructed of concrete with large, wood planks
designed to adjust the downstream flow. A large post now holds the planks in
place, and the upstream area silted up long ago. However, the flume still
operates, and the wood section of the flume was reconstructed during the late
1990s. You can view the flume from the road as you walk back to the parking
lot, and you will note that it changes from wood to concrete along the way.
Closer to the parking lot, the concrete structure disappears to the north.
Now remember, you didn't walk over the
flume as you ascended the Jackson Flats Trail, so the water must pass through
an underground pipe on its way to the fields.
This is a short walk. Butano has other
hikes that we will feature during the next year: a 10.3-mile circumnavigation
of the park; a three-mile climb to the south rim, a two-plus mile jaunt along
Little Butano Creek, and a trail over the ridge to Big Basin Redwoods State
Park.
Written by Tom Davids