The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park Entrance Station, Aptos CA

Lots of trails of varying difficulty. Beautiful scenery. For now road is closed due to storm damage, please respect that.

Magical walking and Hiking trails! Mountain biking Mecca! Love this place! Only 15 minutes from my home!

A must visit when you’re passing through Santa Cruz, gorgeous forest that you can enjoy for a short or long hike. Limited free parking at the bottom of the hill, if you’re up for some extra walking, or lots of paid parking within the park.

A beautiful park. If you park at the booth where they collect admission fee, many trails start with a slog along the fire road, which is not something I particularly enjoy. For that reason I prefer to park in the very last parking lot. Last time I tried biking the fire road, but, my bike not being a proper mountain bike (and my legs not being as strong as I wish they were), I had to give up after 5 miles or so - after first couple of fairly level miles, the road gets steeper and keeps on climbing. If you can tolerate hiking along the fire road, eventually, trails separate from the fire road and get to be quite nice. Another way to get into the park is to park at the Land of Medicine Buddha and follow the 6-mile loop, eventually hanging right at the fork where the loop hangs left. A lovely and not at all busy trail which goes on for miles.

WASP WARNING!

Walked these trails before and they’re gorgeous. Mostly shade, some dog-friendly, beautiful hike.

But as of October 2022, beware of wasps where the Aptos Rancho Trail meets Old Growth Loop at the creek in the southern end of the park.

We entered from the free street parking at the southern-most end of the park and followed the trails toward the creek.

There was some red “Danger” tape up near where the trail meets the creek (not blocking the trail, it’s not like we had to go under it or anything, just like three feet of tape off to the side) but no explanation for what the danger might be. Loose dirt? Collapsed trail? Bacteria in the water? Poison oak?

Nope. Big a** wasp infestation. Learned the hard way. (Couldn’t have put up a sign that said “Wasps”?)

So until that’s handled avoid those parts of the trail and enjoy the rest of the park (with caution).

Really nice mountain biking place. Kids friendly with mild slopes in the first 3 miles. Big trees offer shades all along the trail.

Great place to hike and see redwood trees. Can also ride some trails and dirt road closed to traffic. Very scenic.

Really lovely place to hike!
However, the map they gave at the kiosk is painfully inaccurate. Trails are not marked or placed in accurate places, trail markers are not numbered or placed on the map, and distance is questionable.hope they consider updating their maps with geological info.

I had a blast trail running here while visiting town! I ran in from the beach for a warm up each time. Looks like biking would be a ton of fun. The park is SO much bigger than you'd expect! And somehow right in town. Much cooler on a hot day.

Great park with redwoods, a creek with crossings and a network of trails under the trees.
Old growth trail and Oak ridge trail make it a nice 2 mi loop that starts at the entry to the park and has 2 creek crossings.

This is my second time visiting this park and im amazed. I love the park is huge, the trees are enormous. About 3.5 miles to get to the water falls, $10.00 dollars per car per day, pets welcome. Parking lots gets full fast. Only two Restrooms at the beginning of the trails. Also small picnic area if you bring your own food.

Overall trails are not hard. All shaded. Some trails seems for biking, we did not know that and felt pretty dangerous when bikes flew by.

I don't mountain bike a lot but I've been to Moab, live in Colorado, and been to some truly world class trails. The trails I was able to explore in Nisene were right up there with them and I had an incredible time exploring the place for a couple of hours. Really look forward to trying out more of the trails in the area.

Very cool, shady and fun place for hiking. There are several parking lots. You may park your car at any spots to start hiking. Only the parking lots at the entrance of the gate where you pay for and of the porter family picnic area are available for you to use the restroom without any washing facilities. You have to pay $8 for parking. If you would like to see the Maple Fall, don’t hesitate to park your car at the place as the last picture that I posted. You definitely will save time and energy to get there. We tried the route of the Loma Prieta trail and the Bridge trail to the fall. But it will be challenging and tough for the kids under 6 along the ending part of the Bridge trail. It took 2 hours to start from the Loma Prieta trail to the fall. Strongly suggest you to bring your phone, even there is no signal. But it really helps to check where you are, and just in case of being lost. Suggest you go with your friends to take care of each other for the signal reason.