Environmental activist Dan Haifley takes a photo of poppies growing on a trail in Cotoni-Coast Dairies near Davenport Aug. 9. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
DAVENPORT >> After years of delay partly caused by local concerns about traffic and environmental impacts, a new trail network is set to open this weekend at a national monument near Davenport.
The hiking and mountain biking trails at Cotoni-Coast Dairies, a unit of the California Coastal National Monument, will consist of three loops totaling about 9 miles. From a parking lot and trailhead on Cement Plant Road near Highway 1, the paths wind uphill through meadows, chaparral, creeks and a forest of redwoods and douglas firs. Views of the Pacific Ocean are plentiful.
The federal Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, which manages the site, is planning a guided hike Friday, and the trails will fully open Saturday.
More trails are planned, including from a second parking lot near Panther Beach that’s projected to be completed around 2027. “We’re looking for funding now,” Matt De Young, executive director of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, said of the second batch of trails. “We’ll break ground when funding allows.”
The BLM also plans to eventually connect Cotoni-Coast Dairies trails to the Santa Cruz Coastal Rail Trail and to trails at San Vicente Redwoods.
Drew Perkins of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship leads a group hike on Hawk Trail in Cotoni-Coast Dairies on Aug. 9. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
The new trail network
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship constructed the trails with around 900 volunteers who spent about 10,000 total hours hauling rocks, using hand tools, bushwhacking through poison oak and building bridges over creeks.
Zachary Ormsby, the BLM’s Central Coast field manager, said it was exciting to “provide access to a place that’s never been open to the public before and didn’t previously have a trail network.”
Ormsby said the BLM has coordinated with law enforcement, firefighters, California State Parks, county supervisors, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other organizations on trash pickup, wildfire risk mitigation, cultural site preservation and parking.
Cal Fire officials have identified staging grounds to fight potential fires, as well as evacuation routes, Ormsby said Aug. 9. One day later, a brushfire burned 2 acres in the area.
Zachary Ormsby is Central Coast field manager for the federal Bureau of Land Management, which has opened a 9-mile system of multi-use trails in Cotoni-Coast Dairies near Davenport. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
Ormsby also said he has collaborated with local residents and welcomes feedback. “Most of this community has my direct cell phone number,” he said. “They are our neighbors. They have eyes and ears on this property, and they have a vested interest in keeping it in good shape.”
John Barnes, board member of the Davenport North Coast Association, said Monday that he had safety and other concerns about the trails opening, but also that he looked forward to getting out on the land.
“On the North Coast there is a very full range of opinions about how this is going to turn out,” Barnes said. “There are a lot of unknowns.”
At an Aug. 9 pre-opening celebration, State Senator John Laird called it a “victory and achievement” to protect the area in perpetuity and said he looked forward to riding his mountain bike on the trails. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings said it was important to balance access, environmental protection and residents’ concerns to “have something that works for everyone.”
How to visit Cotoni-Coast Dairies
Directions: Turn onto Cement Plant Road from Highway 1. A dirt parking lot is on the north side of the road.
Parking: The trails leave from a dirt parking area with about 65 spaces. Ormsby said there will be no overflow or street parking. A bathroom is on site.
The trail network’s three loops are:
- Hawk (Káknu) Trail: 2.5 miles. Bikes and leashed dogs allowed. Closest to the trailhead, it’s the widest and least steep of the loops, made to accommodate people with disabilities riding adaptive mountain bikes. “We tried to keep it mellow,” said Drew Perkins of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, who designed the trails. “We wanted this first trail to be pretty easy for most folks, but still engaging.”
- Tree (Huyya) Trail: Bikes and leashed dogs allowed. 1.6 mile loop with 1.1 mile approach. A narrower, twistier, steeper loop that traverses a redwood grove.
- Wildcat (Toróma) Trail: 3.6 mile loop with 2.1 mile approach. Bikes allowed. No dogs. The furthest loop from the parking lot, it’s also the most challenging. “The views are just unparalleled,” De Young said, adding that he has seen whales.
A map shows new trails in Cotoni-Coast Dairies. (Jesse Greenspan — Santa Cruz Local)
Mountain bikers, hikers and runners will share the trails with a herd of “remote-control cows,” Ormsby said. The cows are equipped with GPS collars that deliver sounds and shocks to keep them, and their droppings, away from sensitive habitats and damage-prone parts of the trails.
Wildlife, traffic concerns
The parking lot, and increased visitation in general, have been the source of some local angst since former President Barack Obama designated Cotoni-Coast Dairies as a unit of the California Coastal National Monument in 2017.
Residents’ opposition delayed the opening in the past. Construction on the Cement Plant Road parking lot began in 2022 but was halted after the Davenport North Coast Association and two other local groups appealed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals.
People hike and bike the Tree Trail, one of the new multi-use trails at Cotoni-Coast Dairies. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
Trail cameras on the property have recorded mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, gray foxes, deer and a badger. The land also hosts three species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act: red-legged frogs, coho salmon and steelhead.
Some fear more people could harm these animals. The Santa Cruz Puma Project, for example, has found that mountain lions tend to flee an area upon hearing human voices.
In part to help mitigate wildlife impacts, the trails are closed at night, and about half of Cotoni-Coast Dairies is expected to remain closed to the public.
Mike Powers, a natural resource specialist at the BLM, encouraged visitors to record their plant and wildlife observations on Calflora, eBird and iNaturalist so that wildlife managers get a better sense of what’s up there. He also said to stay on the trail.
Cotoni-Coast Dairies lies within the ancestral home of the Cotoni (pronounced chuh-TOE-nee) people, a subgroup of the Ohlone. Around 1970, it was considered for a nuclear plant, and it was later considered for luxury homes.
To protect the site, the Trust for Public Land and other conservation groups raised a reported $40 million to buy around 7,000 acres, 5,843 of which were transferred to the BLM in 2014 with the idea of opening them to the public.
Read more
- Cotoni-Coast Dairies trails expected to open in summer 2025 — Dec. 12, 2024
- Opening delayed at Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument — Sept. 2, 2022
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Jesse Greenspan is a freelance journalist who writes about history, science and the environment. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Audubon and other publications.
