01
The Forest of Nisene Marks
Ten thousand acres of recovering redwood in the next watershed west, with fire roads that run for miles and the epicenter marker from the 1989 Loma Prieta quake somewhere up the Aptos Creek trail.
The area
Corralitos is a market, a feed store, and a great deal of orchard.
Corralitos is an unincorporated pocket of Santa Cruz County between Watsonville and the mountains — a market, a feed store, a fire station, and a lot of orchard and vineyard. Eureka Canyon Road is the way up and out of it.
How long it takes to get anywhere.
Times are from the gate, driving normally, without traffic on Highway 1. The first nine minutes are the canyon road itself, which is the part you will come to enjoy.
~1,150
- Corralitos Market9 min
- Watsonville17 min
- Aptos & Seacliff24 min
- Santa Cruz38 min
- San Jose55 min
- Monterey47 min
What is out there, and why it matters.
02
Mount Madonna
County park on the ridge to the southeast, with old-growth remnants, a resident herd of white fallow deer, and a view that takes in both the Monterey Bay and the Santa Clara Valley on a clear day.
03
The Corralitos wine trail
A cluster of small Santa Cruz Mountains AVA producers within a few miles — the appellation has a long-standing reputation for pinot noir grown on exactly this kind of slope.
04
Highland Way and the ridge
Eureka Canyon continues past the property, turns into Highland Way, and eventually meets Summit Road near Loma Prieta. It is one of the better-known climbs in the county and mostly empty on a weekday.
05
Manresa and Sunset State Beach
Long, undeveloped sand on the north end of Monterey Bay, close enough to be an ordinary evening rather than an expedition.
06
Orchards and farm stands
Corralitos was apple country and still partly is. Between the stands, the berry fields on the valley floor, and the Watsonville farmers market, very little of what you eat has to come far.
03Getting here
From Highway 1, it is one turn and then one road.
- 01
Exit Highway 1 at Freedom Boulevard and head inland through Watsonville toward Corralitos.
- 02
At the Corralitos Market, bear right onto Eureka Canyon Road — the last chance for coffee or sausage.
- 03
Follow the canyon up for roughly nine miles as the orchards give way to redwood.
- 04
The gravel drive is on the left, marked by the address post; the house sits 340 feet back on the bench.
The county road continues past the property and eventually becomes Highland Way; in winter the upper section is occasionally closed by slides. Coming from Corralitos avoids it entirely.