Wilder Ranch State Park – Santa Cruz, California

The day after Christmas, we decided to get some Pacific Ocean into the mix.    Our original plan had been Ano Nuevo State Park, which has a colony of elephant seals.    Because it’s breeding season, you have to go on a guided tour, and because we weren’t sure of the weather, by the time we could commit, the tours were booked.     So we consulted a book of San Francisco area walks that C had taken out of the library, and found Wilder Ranch instead.

This was a beautiful walk – nice and easy – super family friendly.     There were also pelicans, and harbor seals, so I really feel like I got my wildlife fix.

I’m also really happy we got to Santa Cruz.     We stopped there for lunch, and wandered around the downtown a bit, and we all really enjoyed it.   It’s a nice little city – a great antidote to all the suburbia we were stuck in the middle of where we were staying.