Visiting a park can be life-influencing and even life-changing.
We are very fortunate in the Monterey Bay and surrounding areas to
have such an abundant system of city, county, state and federal
parks. Within an hour
’s drive we can experience redwood forests, ocean beaches,
mountain views and historic landmarks. The recreation ranges from
hiking, picnicking, mountain biking, cave exploring, horseback
riding, boating, dirt biking and fishing to simply laying in the
sun on a warm sandy beach listening to the wa
ves lap up on the shore.
Visiting a park can be life-influencing and even life-changing. We are very fortunate in the Monterey Bay and surrounding areas to have such an abundant system of city, county, state and federal parks. Within an hour’s drive we can experience redwood forests, ocean beaches, mountain views and historic landmarks. The recreation ranges from hiking, picnicking, mountain biking, cave exploring, horseback riding, boating, dirt biking and fishing to simply laying in the sun on a warm sandy beach listening to the waves lap up on the shore.
When I reflect on my own past in parks, it brings me back to my childhood growing up in Santa Cruz across the street from Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. My first memories in life are with my parents hiking under the redwoods and mushroom-hunting for Chanterelles and Boletus (which, by the way, is no longer legal in most parks).
I remember walking gently through the leaves looking for these little treasures, then frying them up with scrambled eggs or drying them and adding them to spaghetti sauce. I had so many great adventures in my backyard park and probably explored every corner of it.
One time at the age of four I decided to slip out of the house and go for our usual forest loop walk. I won’t go into too much detail on this event since my parents, now in their 70’s, don’t need to be reminded of the panic they experienced during this childhood escapade. But needless to say I was quite surprised and dumbfounded when park rangers and a neighborhood search party found me.
“I was fine, I was on the trail and heading home, what’s the big deal?”, my four year old mind thought as I watched my mom crying uncontrollably.
When I was 7 I experienced my first national park. As a birthday present my parents took me to Yosemite. It was late spring and the waterfalls were at capacity. I was in disbelief to see water tumbling down 4,000-foot walls of granite. It had to be the most beautiful place in the world! This is where I went on my first ranger-led nature hike and when it was over I exclaimed to my parents, “When I grow up I am going to be a ranger.”
I was so excited to get back to my first grade class and tell them all I was going to be a park ranger! They didn’t seem too interested – the career choice for most of them at the time was either to be a famous ballerina or an astronaut.
It is a little known fact that what we now know as Yosemite National Park was actually California’s first state park. It was in 1864 that President Abraham Lincoln signed into law that Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees be granted to the State of California for preservation. Not only was Yosemite California’s first state park, it was the first park of its type to be established at the state or national level. In 1866, an eight-member federal commission for parks appointed the first “Guardian” (park ranger), Galen Clark, to help protect Yosemite. So, for me growing up across the street from a state park was very influential, but visiting Yosemite became life-changing.
Through grade school, high school and college I held on to my dream of being a ranger and did almost every school assignment on something about nature or Yosemite. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies I got my first seasonal job with California State Parks.
Enduring a four-year hiring freeze I almost gave up on my dream, but then, the announcement came out: “Hiring State Park Rangers.” I was so excited, but then once again disappointed when I found out there were nearly 2,000 applicants for only 42 positions!
After passing many grueling tests, I finally made it into the peace officer academy for a nearly six-month training program. Upon completing the program, I found out that the only positions available were in Southern California.
Southern California!
What a hard concept to swallow for a Santa Cruz native. Up here we learn practically in the womb that anything below San Luis Obispo really is another state, “the other,” a place to avoid.
So imagine how it felt when much to my surprise, I discovered some absolutely beautiful parks down there. I worked in Topanga State Park, a 12,000-acre wilderness on the outskirts of Los Angeles, for eight years. There I met my husband, who works in the maintenance realm of state parks, and we had our two children.
Now I’m back in the Monterey Bay area working San Juan Bautista State Historic Park and Fremonts Peak. My husband works at Henry Coe State Park. We feel so fortunate to have these parks to work and play in.
With the rich history of San Juan Bautista and the unsurpassed views at Fremont Peak, how could you go wrong? And did you know that Henry Coe is California’s second largest state park with over 90,000 acres of protected land to enjoy?
As I see myself now in my children, it makes me reflect on my past. My daughter, now 4, says when she grows up she wants to be a ranger. My son, who is 6, well, I think he would rather be an astronaut. But who knows – maybe he will be one of the first Earth inhabitants on Mars helping to create an intergalactic park system.
State Park Ranger Sheryl Neufeld can be reached at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park at (831) 623-4526, or by e-mail at sn******@******ca.gov
