Henry Cowell Redwoods: Why You Should Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Every summer I like to do at least one camping trip. Over the years I’ve fallen in love with two California State Parks: Henry Cowell Redwoods and New Brighten Beach. If you’ve never been to Santa Cruz county, I highly recommend it. Both parks offer beautiful views–Henry Cowell is in the redwood forests of Felton and New Brighten Beach is along the coast in Capitola. Aside from the views, I really like that you’re never really roughing it–both campgrounds have running water, restrooms and coin-operated showers. They’re also not far from civilization if you forget to pack something.

This year I camped at Henry Cowell. Usually my camping trips happen during the 4th of July weekend, but this time I went during Labor Day weekend. I’m not sure if it was because of the timing, but I feel like there were more wildlife interactions this time around. Squirrels were foraging for berries, I had my first coyote sighting and even caught a small lizard. I went on several hikes, which I rarely do, and made it to the observation tower to get some cool pictures of the sunset.

The California State Park system has done a great job with Henry Cowell Redwoods. The paths are nicely paved, many of the sites offer water spigots and there are miles of hiking trails in the park. If you’re lucky, you might camp on a night where the rangers stay after hours to host a constellation story time at the observation tower. (I think this particular activity was meant for families with children, but my boyfriend and I attended anyway because we wanted to hear stories about the constellations and look into the rangers’ telescopes. We weren’t disappointed! :-)

Henry Cowell will be closing for the season soon, but if you’re already thinking about your next summer camping trip, I can’t recommend this state park enough. Spaces fill up quickly, so be sure to make your reservations early!