Big Basin’s second act will center on its defining characteristic — resiliency

A trek into the Santa Cruz Mountains past Felton, Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek will bring you to the area known as Saddle Mountain at the northeast boundary of Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

The area doesn’t have much going on right now. A small parking lot beside a modest beige building that serves as the state park’s temporary operations center following 2020’s catastrophic CZU Lightning Complex fires. But in the coming years, this quiet corner of Saddle Mountain will be transformed into the heart of a rebuilt Big Basin, anchored by a visitor center complex that includes a store stocked with camping gear, a café, staff housing and a shuttle hub to ferry visitors into the old-growth redwood groves — all part of an ambitious plan to reimagine California’s oldest state park as it rises from the ashes just like the forest itself.

The CZU Lightning Complex fires devastated Big Basin, burning 97% of its 18,000 acres, closing 85 miles of trails and destroying more than 100 structures, including many visitor facilities within the park. 

While the disaster forced the park to largely close to the public, it also created an opportunity to reimagine Big Basin’s future. Now, California State Parks is undertaking a rebuild focused on making the park’s wildlife and infrastructure more resilient to future fires, in part by rebuilding most of the visitor services away from sensitive old-growth areas. 

The vision for the new park spans multiple areas of the sprawling forest, with different amenities and visitor experiences planned for each one. Saddle Mountain, up the winding Highway 236 north of Boulder Creek, will be home to the new main visitor center. The old headquarters were nestled in the old-growth area just about 3 miles away — as were many of the park’s historic buildings and recreational sites.

Upper and lower Sky Meadow, to the northeast of the old-growth core, will hold new campgrounds and cabins. The Sempervirens and Blooms Creek campgrounds, which held over 30 and 50 camp sites, respectively, were previously situated in the heart of the old-growth area. They will not return in order to encourage the redwood habitat to rebound. Little Basin, located deeper into the park and south of the Saddle Mountain headquarters, will have group recreation options, including a new home for the camping area complete with solo tents, tent cabins and more regular cabins. State Parks is also in conversation with local Indigenous groups, including the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, to establish a ceremonial space and other cultural facilities.

A general plan for new Big Basin facilities has been in the works since 2013, but the fires forced adjustments within the plan — and put a major focus on the resiliency and rebirth of the forest in the fire’s aftermath, said Will Fourt, senior parks and recreation specialist for State Parks’ Santa Cruz district.

While a shuttle service for visitors and the main visitor center was always envisioned for the Saddle Mountain region, the destruction of the park’s main visitor center, nature center and most of its other old buildings led to the plan incorporating more of the visitor and staff amenities in one central area. 

Fourt said that many of the structures predating the fire were historic, and were not going to be removed or replaced. Plans shifted drastically after the blazes ripped through the forest. While the fire was a major blow to the park, State Parks decided to view it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle: “With the loss of those [buildings] in the fire, it changed that situation, and we’re focused on creating a welcome center here on Saddle Mountain.”

Fourt said centralizing the park’s facilities serves several purposes. Most of the staff housing was previously situated in lower and upper Sky Meadow, with some scattered deeper into the park. Having staff housed on site in a centralized means park workers can coordinate effectively and respond quickly in the case of emergencies, especially in a remote mountain area like Big Basin. Fourt added that providing housing for staff greatly helps retain employees to keep the park fully staffed considering the area’s affordability hardships. 

Reestablishing the park’s central hub on the mountain will improve the resiliency of both the forest and the new buildings, Fourt said. The Saddle Mountain region isn’t teeming with old-growth redwoods, which makes it less sensitive to fire, but it still has scenic qualities that make it a good park entrance and that offer a sneak peek at the greater park area.

Constructing the new amenities in a more centralized location away from the old-growth redwoods will allow natural ecological processes to occur unobstructed. It will also make it easier for State Parks to perform prescribed burns, since crews will not have to maneuver around structures in sensitive areas. Fourt said the new plans also allow as much water flow into the old-growth grove as possible. When the old-growth area was heavy with development, some of the stream tributaries were altered or diverted to keep them away from structures. A smaller development footprint allows water into the area so the ecosystem can recover naturally.

“Access to water is a primary reason why some of the trees are bigger here,” Fourt said, referring to the old-growth area. “Without those structures, there can be a more natural flow of water through the site to restore natural hydrology.”

CZU also damaged the park’s extensive trail network. Only 15 of the previously 85 miles of trails are open — about 17% of the network — all of which converge at the old-growth forest high up on the mountain. The plan is to restore the majority of the trails that were in the park before the fire, with additional trails to be explored in the future. 

As visitation, which dipped heavily following the fire, continues to rebound, the plan is to reduce the amount of parking by the old-growth area and install new bathrooms and a small visitor center — both of which burned down in the fire. A forlorn staircase and stone chimney are all that remain from the previous buildings. They will stay a part of the new park to memorialize the fire and the park’s old life.

The view as Fourt drives a State Parks truck down a winding road toward the old-growth redwoods is both beautiful and poignant. The peaks and valleys of the mountainous park are lined with charred trees even five years on — but the blackened bark starkly contrasts with the new green foliage sprouting from either the trunk or the branches of the redwoods, signs of the old-growth area moving through the rebirth process.

“It’s called epicormal sprouting, and most of the redwoods are resprouting and regrowing,” said Fourt. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the park received calls from across the country from people anxious to know whether or not the forest survived. For a long time, no one knew how much remained — and how much would rebound.

Other new life has sprung, too, some of which has never been seen at the park before despite it being the oldest state park in the state. Various wildflowers and ceanothus shrubs — also known as the California lilac — can be seen sprouting from the grounds throughout the park.

“You didn’t see it before, but it was always here. That seed bank was in the soil,” said Fourt, explaining that the thick redwood canopy prevented the plants from flourishing. “It was waiting for this time, for this disturbance, to regrow.”

The gradual rebirth of the forest is therapeutic for locals, too. Shawn Moore, a Boulder Creek resident who lost her home in the fire, has been a volunteer docent at Big Basin for the past two years.

“One of the reasons I decided to be a docent was to help me heal from the loss,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “When I first started, it was hard to talk about, but now I try and look at the good part of it and how the fire brings back growth.”

Moore said that as she pushed through the process of rebuilding her house, her work at the park taught her far more about the place she lived than she expected — especially since ceanothus was popping up all over her property, too.

“I feel very grateful to be here and being allowed to share my experiences,” she said. “I live in the redwoods, so my property is growing back, and with growth is education.”

The vision for Big Basin is far-reaching and ambitious, with quite a bit of time left before any shovels get into the ground. Fourt said that the plan’s environmental review document won’t be finalized until next year, which will allow design to begin. Still, even as the park’s next iteration slowly comes to fruition, the spirit of the beloved forest will remain the same as it always was.

“We’re creating the same kind of experiences. People really want to come and get on the trails, go camping and see the redwood trees,” said Fourt. “The heart of why people come here and why the park exists will not change.”

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