It was close to 9:30 a.m. when we arrived at the new parking lot for the Cotoni-Coast Dairies trail system. While the sun had barely risen over the Santa Cruz Mountains, the 62-space lot was already jammed, and one thing was immediately clear to my wife and me: This new destination just off Highway 1 is a hit.
Not that there was much doubt people would come. This 5,800-acre parcel of land, 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, has been a dream of locals for years, even before it became a national monument in the waning days of the Barack Obama administration in 2017.
And in mid-August, after years of meetings and design and over 10,000 hours of work from local volunteers, close to 9 miles of well-planned trails opened for an eager public.
Volunteers work on a Cotoni-Coast Dairies trail. Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship
The response has “been overwhelmingly positive,” Matt De Young, executive director of the Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, or SCMTS, which designed and built the trails, told SFGATE. “People are really excited to be out there and enjoying it.”
I shared this excitement, but as a hiker, I found one aspect within the packed parking lot concerning: At least half the people in it were mountain bikers. This pairing — kind of like tennis players and pickleballers, or snowboarders and skiers — can be fraught, to say the least.
On top of that, this trail system was designed not only for hikers and bikers but also for joggers, dog walkers, horseback riders and paracyclers. While this may sound like a recipe for all kinds of trail rage, the SCMTS managed to take all of these groups into account to create a system that actually works for everyone.
Through many meetings with various groups early in the planning process, De Young worked to figure out how to “provide experiences for that range of people out there in the best way we can without having user conflict.”
You see this attention even before you leave the parking lot: The trail map suggests directions for mountain bikes to take to minimize negative interactions. It also lays out the very effective stacked loop system of trails designed to create a positive experience for all levels and types of visitor.
Hitting the Hawk Trail
To explore Cotoni-Coast Dairies, everyone begins on the Hawk Trail, the first and easiest of the loops. It is luxuriously wide, up to 40 inches in some places, smooth and not very steep. Here, it is easy to pass or be passed, depending on whether you are fast or slow, on foot or on wheels. And if you have an adaptive 3- or 4-wheel bike, it should be a comfortable ride.
Entering the forested area along the Tree Trail in the Cotoni-Coast Dairies trail system in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Very soon, you hit a fork on the Hawk Trail where you can take your pick: Head up Hawk East for a gradual ascent or Hawk West for steeper but more direct route. We chose the latter, and within minutes, the crowd thinned out.
Walking north through scrubby pastureland, we pass the local bovines eating and snoozing as turkey vultures circle and sparrows dart about. Cows have been grazing this land since the mid-19th century, and it was considered important to keep them here, both historically and, as was noticed in the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire of 2020, as a source of wildfire mitigation for the Davenport area.
After we’ve slowly climbed through pastures and taken in views of the glittering Pacific Ocean, the topography changes. We enter a forested area as the Hawk Trail links up with the Tree Trail or, as the sign also denotes, Huyya Trail, since trail markers here are in both English and Awasawas, a traditional language of the Indigenous people who made this area their home for hundreds of years.
A general view of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies trail system in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship
From here, we enjoy the shaded descent through a grove of redwoods. At one point, we approach a clearing where a clump of people are gathered, squinting at their phones with bewildered looks. It’s a sight we’d see again and again over the day since these trails just opened and no one is sure of where to go. Soon enough, we join this scrum of confusion, checking the map on one of our phones.
After some consideration, we go straight on the Tree Trail until we come to another intersection that leads us to the Wildcat Trail, the third and most challenging loop. Now, we are headed toward the ocean astride a long gulch.
Since SCMTS started as Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, De Young has long studied what is needed to make these kinds of biker-hiker moments work. “The trails have a big impact on those experiences. If you have trails that weren’t meant for those types of interactions, you can have blind corners and high-speed mountain biking, and it’s something we take seriously.”
To complete the Wildcat Loop would’ve been 3.6 miles in itself, so we followed the trail to where it overlooked the wetlands of Scott Creek and then turned back. We pass an older family enjoying lunch at a random shaded picnic bench. Farther on, we cross a short bridge with a big sign extolling the 43-inch ground screws used to keep the span in place. I have never been more impressed by a ground screw, and I think that’s the idea.
Throughout Cotoni, signs point out the work that went into its creation, almost like some Works Progress Administration project of the past. They celebrate the volunteer trail crews, explain drainage, talk about benches, marvel at retaining walls — all reminding us what a feat it has been to get this project completed. And they make us appreciate it all, including, yes, the ground screws.
A sign near a Cotoni-Coast Dairies trail shows the 43-inch screw used in the construction of a footbridge.
Completing the Tree Trail, we hook back up with the Hawk Trail and begin to loop back toward our car. Luckily, we find a shaded bench under a tree to eat a sandwich since this section is very exposed and not long on places to stop for a break. But that is merely a quibble on what was a memorable hike of about 6.5 miles.
The ultimate plan for Cotoni-Coast Dairies is to have 19 miles of trails, which will make this area north of Santa Cruz a place to return to either for quick jaunts or full-on day trips. The new 10 miles of trail will hopefully be completed sometime in 2027 and will be a separate system south of the current trails. There is one big difference: The new trails won’t have mountain bike access — a choice, De Young explains, that was made by the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency overseeing this land. Reuniting with the Tree Trail loop, we climb, and just as we near one of the trail’s few hairpin turns, two bikers come flying around the corner, one with a boom box strapped to his bike. As the classic rock blasts by, De Young’s point about trail design becomes clear: Blind turns and poor sight lines are no one’s friend out here. Fortunately, at Cotoni-Coast Dairies, both are few and far between.
But for now, whether you seek to casually revel in stunning views or to (cordially) pedal yourself into an anaerobic frenzy, here is a spectacular section of California coast that is open and ready for your visit.
Getting there
Like many breathtaking stops on Highway 1, the Cotoni-Coast Dairies trailhead is only modestly marked, and if you’re distracted by the dazzling Pacific or a sudden osprey sighting, you might cruise right past it. If you’re driving south, start paying attention a few miles after Año Nuevo State Park and go left at the sign for Cement Plant Road. If you’re heading north from Santa Cruz, the turnoff is to the right not far past the actual cement plant.
