WITHIN A DAY'S JOURNEY

Path in Big Trees Grove, 1908 - Author's Personal Collection

"The Santa Cruz Big Tree Grove, seven miles from Santa Cruz, on the bank of the San Lorenzo River, is one of the most interesting points within a day's journey of San Francisco. The distance is 73 miles from the city, and the Narrow Gauge road runs through the edge of the grove, so that there is no delay or inconvenience in reaching the ground. A party leaving the metropolis at 8:30 A. M., can spend nearly three hours in the Big Trees, and reach home at 7 P. M., the same day. The grove covers an area of about 20 acres, and has a score of redwood trees … One stump of a redwood is covered with a summer house, which has seats for fourteen persons … Numerous tables and benches have been provided; and while there is room for thousands of people, there are also numerous secluded little nooks, suitable for the smallest party."

"… [T]his grove gives as much satisfaction to most visitors, as do the larger Calaveras and Mariposa Groves, which, if they have larger trees, cannot be visited without much more inconvenience and expense. The grove has a small house built for a hotel, but it is entirely inadequate to the wants of the situation, and in the spring of 1882, has no tenant. If there were a good house, there would probably be many summer boarders; that is, if the attractions of the place can be fairly estimated from the impressions left by repeated visits of a few hours each."

Source: Hittell’s Hand-book of Pacific Coast Travel by John Shertzer Hittell, 1885.