01
Terrain
The parcel falls roughly 180 feet from the road frontage to the northern boundary. Two useful flats: the house bench at the top and a second clearing about 300 feet below, terraced years ago and now growing volunteer plum.
The land
Eleven and a half acres that were logged once and left alone since.
The parcel is the reason to buy this place. Here is how it sits, where the water comes from, what is growing on it, and what it asks of you in September.
Top to bottom, about 180 feet of fall.
02Ground truth
Six notes on the parcel.
02
Water
A private well on the west side of the drive feeds 8,400 gallons of storage uphill of the house, so pressure is gravity-fed and survives a power outage. A separate 2,500-gallon tank is plumbed with a standard fire draft fitting.
03
Trees
Second-growth coast redwood dominates the north-facing slope, with tanoak, madrone, and California bay through the middle band. A few of the redwoods on the lower boundary are large enough that they were left when the canyon was logged.
04
What grows here
This is the same slope and the same Zayante-adjacent soil that the Corralitos wine growers work a few ridges over. Pinot noir and chardonnay do well in the area. There is room on the south bench for a small planting, an orchard, or simply a garden that does not fight the deer.
05
Weather
Above the coastal fog line most summer mornings and below the worst of the ridge wind. Rainfall in this part of the range runs well ahead of the valley floor — the canyon greens up in November and stays green into June.
06
Neighbors and quiet
Parcels along this stretch of the canyon are large. Road noise is limited to the county road, which carries local traffic and weekend cyclists working their way up toward Highland Way.
What the canyon does, month by month.
01
November to February
The drainage runs. Everything greens up within about two weeks of the first real rain, and the redwoods drip long after the storm has passed.
02
March to May
Best light of the year on the south bench. Sorrel covers the forest floor, and the madrones drop bark in long red curls.
03
June to August
Above the fog line most mornings, in the seventies most afternoons. The creek is down to seeps; storage tanks carry the garden.
04
September to October
The dry end of the year and the part that demands attention: clearing, mowing the benches, and keeping the hundred feet around the structures honest.
What owning eleven acres in these mountains actually involves.
Defensible space is not optional, and it is not a weekend. The hundred feet around the structures has been cleared and needs to stay that way, which in practice means a mower, a chainsaw, and a few days each September.
The road is a county road, so plowing is not a concern, but winter storms bring down limbs and occasionally close the canyon further up. Power goes out. That is why the water storage sits uphill and the battery is sized the way it is.
None of this is unusual for the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is worth saying plainly, because the people who are happy up here are the ones who knew what they were signing up for.