Castle Rock is a park on the edge in two respects:
- It sits right up at the top of Skyline and drops steeply to the southwest, giving expansive views of the redwood forest out to Monterey Bay
- Its on and off and on the closure list of state parks, which means you might want to check out those views while you still can.
On Feb 26, I acted as the sweep for a Sempervirens Fund hike around the Saratoga Gap and Ridge Trails. Hike leader Scott Peden snapped excellent photos, including a panel of wildflowers. He also got a great shot of the woodpecker we saw.
Here’s Scott pointing out all the land across the San Lorenzo watershed — half of which is scheduled for closure in July if it can’t find funding.
Along the trail…my role as caboose gives a nice vantage point.
Nobody can resist touching the Madrone “refrigerator trees”. 
Old growth redwoods live in Castle Rock, too.
When you visit Castle Rock State Park, I just have one request: Please pony up for parking or buy a parks pass. Your dollars count towards keeping the parks open and maintained.
Great post! Sempervirens is stepping forward to help keep this park open – what a great organization! Interested in learning more about efforts to keep Castle Rock SP and Portola Redwoods SP open? follow the url above.
BTW – is the picture at top Lisbon?
Thanks again!
Hey Andrew-
Thank you for your comments!
Yes, I believe the top photo is Lisbon. It is actually a stock photo that comes with this WordPress blog theme. I chose it because I so enjoyed my travels in Portugal.
I see you’re with portolaandcastlerockfound.org — I wish you every success in keeping those precious parks open! Thanks for all you do!!
Jackie
Nice blog post, I really like the Caboose photo too.
I’m not understanding which link Andrew is talking about, I’d like to know more about his organization your referring to.
Scott
OK, I got it!
http://www.portolaandcastlerockfound.org/
I was hoping some of you would have been on that walk, so I could share my perspective with you.
I’m open to doing a walk with you folks too.
Scott