As we head into Memorial Day and the effective start to summer for Santa Cruz County, expect tens of thousands of people to flock to our incredible array of state parks and beaches.

From Big Basin Redwoods at the northern end of the county to Sunset State Beach at the southern end, this county boasts, arguably, the most state parks per capita of any community in California.

The 32 parks in our county and along the San Mateo County coast north, encompass 44 miles of coastline and 65,000 acres along with 400 miles of roads and trails and host 10 million visitors annually. (Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains also traverses into Santa Clara County as well as Santa Cruz County.)

Not that they don’t face major challenges.

Probably the biggest of these are faced at Big Basin and at Seacliff State Beach. These two, with Henry Cowell Redwoods park, draw throngs of visitors and for understandable reasons.

Big Basin, as most readers know, suffered terrible damages from the 2020 CZU fires, but has been seeing a steadily increasing number of visitors, according to Jordan Burgess, Deputy District Superintendent for the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks, who spoke recently to the Sentinel Editorial Board.

Big Basin, California’s oldest state park, is now open for limited day-use access. Parking is limited; first-come, first-served. A summer shuttle program has been set up that allows visitors to make a reservation to park at the Saddle Mountain parking area and ride the shuttle into the park on summer weekends and holidays, starting this Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The district also is partnering with Santa Cruz Metro to offer shuttle service from the Scotts Valley bus lot.

Burgess said 10 miles of hiking trails have reopened, along with 20 miles of fire trails. The popular Skyline to the Sea trail also is open, she said, adding that the district continues to focus on the health of trees in the park, including more stream flow and fire suppression.

Seacliff, with two mile of coastline and a popular walking/biking/picnicking promenade, was nearly swept away in the storms of January 2023 and while it reopened shortly afterward, today remains a work decidedly in progress. The fishing pier is gone and so is the RV shoreline campground, unique in California, but unlikely to return as the ocean continues its relentless surge.

The seawall, destroyed many times over the decades, remains ruined, but part of the RV campground has become a visitor parking area. Meanwhile the district continues to work on an overall long-term plan for Seacliff with the next step in this study (which includes public input) possibly released this summer, Burgess told us.

Burgess was part of the local group that greeted then-President Joe Biden at Seacliff in January of 2023, when the president pledged FEMA funding to rebuild Seacliff.

That funding, amid Trump administration cuts, is now unlikely to be fully realized.

But the local parks benefit from the relationship with a unique local group, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks (thatsmypark.org) which runs programs, raises money, staffs stores — and provides volunteer help on conservation, facilities improvements, historic preservation and cultural events. Friends also partners on the Kids2Parks program that pays for field trip transportation costs to local parks.

Among the innovative programs available this summer is FamCamp, a state parks program that will be rolled out at Henry Cowell Redwoods and Sunset Beach. The mission of the program is to introduce camping to underserved community groups “who would otherwise not have the opportunity to have an overnight outdoor recreation experience.”

FamCamp’s trailers at the two parks will included sleeping bags with liners, tents, propane tanks, camp stoves, sleeping pads and first aid kits, among other equipment.

In order to qualify for the FamCamp program, contact: FamCampRequest@parks.ca.gov.