I have ridden Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz a handful of times going back to 2002. Between visit I often forget just how pretty this place is. Here is the ride report from my first visit. There are basically three primary types of ecosystems going on at Wilder Ranch.  You have grasslands, deeply shaded redwood forests and somewhat airy hardwood forests with thick undergrowth. The transitions between these areas are for the most part abrupt which I find to be really cool. You can be cruising along across a grassy hillside then all of the sudden be in the dark shade of the redwoods.

Ride Notes:  While you will want refer to my original ride report about the area for specific trail descriptions, I just describe the route we took this day.  We started from the parking lot and climbed up Engelman's Loop (Taking the right-hand split at the bottom) to Long Meadow.   We then took Long Meadow up the top of the park.  From the top of the park you have other trail options you can tie together that are outside of the park.  The Gray Whale Ranch area just east of Wilder Ranch and west of the UC Santa Cruz grounds have some excellent trails.  To the north is the Henry Cowell State Park that also has some options.  The Gray Whale Ranch was privately owned ranchland that became a part of the State Park in November 1997. While there are plenty of well-used trails in the ranch area, they do not show up on the Wilder Ranch maps.  I'm not sure about the politics regarding these trails but with just a little investigation you will find plenty of options to go bigger should you choose to do so.

From the top of the park we took one of the Gray Whale Ranch trail's back downhill and made our way back to the junction of Engelmann and Long Meadow.   From there we took the Wild Boar trail and the Old Cabin Trail.  The Old Cabin trail is not to be missed.  It is shaded in the Redwoods and while short it is a bunch of swooping bit of fun.