Following in the Footsteps of Rancheros in Santa Cruz, California
This nineteenth-century dairy ranch was home to five generations of the Wilder family, and when you enter its peaceful green grounds, tucked in a protected coastal nook, you can see why they stuck around. The Wilder Ranch's rambling cluster of restored buildings includes a white clapboard Victorian, fronted by an ancient cypress tree with hoary branches touching the ground. Check out the barns and the collection of innovative farming equipment, and admire the glossy-feathered clutch of chickens. Then strike out for Old Landing Cove Trail, which winds through flat fields to a bluff overlooking a secluded beach. Once busy with schooners offloading lumber, it's now a protected habitat for snowy plover—and a perfect contemplative moment.
If you could take just one photo:
Wilder Ranch State Park
Freshly baked apple pie wafts through the still afternoon air on an unseasonably azure, warm winter day, an old fashioned burning stove warms the small cottage called the Wilder Ranch Interpretive Center. A large barn and a smaller one detail its history as a dairy ranch, rusted farm equipment sit untouched in the large barn, hens cluck quietly in their pen. From the horizon, a cyclist disappears within the rolling hills as an equestrian saunters in—earthy, piquant smells heighten my senses as we pass. A bird's screech captures the morning stillness.
Sidestepping a large puddle, I take a gulp of water. My head hot under my cap from the climb—an undulating vista, ocean glistening in the distance rewards my hike.
This nineteenth-century dairy ranch was home to five generations of the Wilder family, and when you enter its peaceful green grounds, tucked in a protected coastal nook, you can see why they stuck around. The Wilder Ranch's rambling cluster of restored buildings includes a white clapboard Victorian, fronted by an ancient cypress tree with hoary branches touching the ground. Check out the barns and the collection of innovative farming equipment, and admire the glossy-feathered clutch of chickens. Then strike out for Old Landing Cove Trail, which winds through flat fields to a bluff overlooking a secluded beach. Once busy with schooners offloading lumber, it's now a protected habitat for snowy plover—and a perfect contemplative moment.
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