Wilder Ranch State Park

So yesterday was the day after Sandy left to go home and I found myself sitting in my room not doing anything but wasting time on the computer. I realized it was 10 am and I hadn’t even thought about breakfast or doing anything with my day. I decided I better get out of this place and do something before I went into some sort of depression and wasted the entire summer doing nothing. So I went online as I usually do and started searching. I found a local guy who uses a power wheelchair and blogs about different places he visits. Of course, I have this sickness where I feel the need to push myself to do things other people haven’t yet and he hasn’t been to Wilder Ranch State Park. So naturally, I decided to wing it and go see if it was doable.

I know I sound like a broken record but the traffic was horrible. It may have had something to do with 4th of July weekend and I hope that is true but nevertheless it was bad. I live about 36 miles from the park and it took me an hour to get there. It was a beautiful ride though.

I managed to get there by noon and found the only handicapped parking spot left, Score! I am finding that if you want to do anything around here you need to be there when the place opens. Also may have something to do with the weekend, keeping my fingers crossed.

I checked out signs and the loop trail seemed to go toward the ocean so I decided to head off in that direction. I didn’t know it at the time but the loop trail is about 3 miles long. To my surprise, the trail is nice and wide and for the most part either downhill or flat. There are some places where the middle is somewhat washed out so it dips down into a sort of ditch but I managed to get through it fairly easily. I came to the first lookout and there were a woman and her son there, who was just a toddler. I later found out his name is Owen but there is more to that story. He was throwing little rocks over the cliff and cracking himself up. He is very cute. He saw me and after a bit of shyness gave me a rock to throw and this was the start of a great day spent with Owen and his mom. I am calling her his mom because I can’t remember her name but I heard Owen’s name so many times I won’t ever forget haha.

I let them get ahead of me and I stayed at the overlook for awhile but I eventually caught up again.

Most of the trail is along the coast next to rock cliffs and amazing views as far as the eye can see. At each overlook, Owen and I had to toss a few rocks over the edge. I have to say I was a bit off in my mood having to go out on my own and not having Sandy and the boys there to enjoy it so meeting up with Owen and his mom was a welcome distraction and made the day quite enjoyable.

We stopped at one point where there is a flat rocky area and there are some tide pools within the rock. Owen sat down and started putting his finger in the water and then pointing at me and I would make a reaction and he would laugh his head off, totally cute. We also saw a whole bunch of lion seals laying on a rocky area below. That was a very cool sight.

He actually is one of very few toddlers to learn how to say my name correctly. He kept saying Enock let’s go or something like that, I didn’t completely understand haha. So I followed along and just enjoyed the views and the day playing with Owen.

The trail actually turned out to be one of the most accessible I have used other than a few hills and some soft sandy spots. It was a good workout though and I felt a lot better after.

Toward the very end, we were crossing some railroad tracks and saw a small coyote. It was probably a few hundred feet away and stopped and stared at us then walked into the tall grass. I don’t think I have ever been that close to one in the wild before. It was definitely a memorable experience.

If you are in a chair or not I recommend going to Wilder Ranch State Park. If you love the ocean this is the place to be. It is actually a 7000-acre area with a lot more trails then I went on and has some old historic buildings which I didn’t get to this time around. I definitely plan on spending more time there though this summer.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10157127584865224.1073741899.748825223&type=1&l=9ea68f305d