Double-Decker Bridge
After disc golf, we decided to head towards Santa Cruz – it has another great disc golf course. There was an open spot at the Redwood RV Resort in Boulder Creek which was about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz – perfect! We left behind the wine country and entered ‘the city’. I can only call it ‘the city’ because once it started, it seemed to never end. We’ve been to San Francisco multiple times so we exited South 101 and took I-580 East across the San Francisco Bay via the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (aka John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge) and I-880 South towards Oakland. The bridge is 5.5 miles long and is a double-decker. With the tresses and dip in the middle, it has a roller coaster look. Impressive architectural bridge!
The Road to Boulder Creek, Oh My!
A little further down the road and beyond San Jose, we reached the last part of ‘the city’ and could see the Santa Cruz mountains looming ahead. Boulder Creek was on the other side. I-880 turned into CA-17 where we took the Bear Creek Road exit. Ya know how you look at the map and your route shows squiggly lines…I mean a lot of squiggly lines really close together and you question if perhaps you should find another route? But you continue on thinking it can’t be that bad? It can be that bad! Bear Creek Road is beautiful, but there are hairpin corners, steep elevation changes and narrow lanes with no shoulder. I white-knuckled the entire 13 miles and told Phil more than once what a great job he was doing maneuvering the road. Whew! We made it! The nice gentlemen who checked us in said a lady came through last summer with a truck towing a 40’ trailer on that road – he had no idea how she made it…me neither!
Boulder Creek is just below the peak of the Santa Cruz mountains and is referred to as the gateway to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It’s a small town with big character. Some of the local businesses are in buildings from the 1900’s and the downtown area is filled with vintage shops and eateries. Just south of Boulder Creek is Ben Lomond, another former logging town which has the most amazing coffee shop with locally sourced coffee beans and pastries. If you’re in the area make sure to stop at Coffee Nine!
The days in Boulder Creek were in the mid-60’s but the nights were still getting down to the low-30’s. Even Ninja was sleeping in his sweater wrapped in a blanket at night! Sweater Boy is his new nickname! We stayed two nights and then continued our quest for warmer weather and more disc golf!
