The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park — Attraction in Capitola

Hiker beware……..because you’re pretty much on your own. Here’s the email I sent to Park Mgt: We visited Nicene Marks State Park today with plans to see the old growth areas and to especially walk the Old Growth Loop Trail.

I had looked up reviews after a friend told me she and her hiking partner had a hard time finding the specific trails. One of your negative reviews online said the following: “ Very beautiful place but very confusing and the map they give you is horrible. Wanted to see maple fallsand couldnt find it 😪 there's barely any signs to help navigate you. We might try again.”

We decided to try it anyway but were seriously disappointed. The park is beautiful and is a pleasure to walk through. The problems are: The map, even with an enlarged version, if very difficult to follow. The signposts (4x4 posts with plastic signage) can be found but offer very limited directions other than an arrow (one was pointed in the wrong direction) and sometimes, a milage. After hiking from George’s Picnic Area along what we later learned was the Terrace Trail, we found a post that pointed us to the Entrance Station. I went to the gatekeeper and asked her for specific directions to the Old Growth Loop Trail. She told me to ‘go past the bathrooms, follow the trail toward the river, and that the trail might be a little confusing but you will reach a place where there are 3 trails; take the one that leads to the river. Then you will come to a picnic area and then to a tree that is tipped over but which has lots of growth coming out of the topside of it - the Old Growth area is right after that.’ (I wrote down her directions to be sure we could follow them.) A. There was no signage after the bathrooms to tell us which way to go. B. When we finally got near the river, we could not see how to get to the other side. C. None of the trails were marked and there was no way we could find how to get to the Old Growth. We were having the same problem that our friends had when they were there. D. We went back to the Entrance Station and I told the gatekeeper that IMHO the signage was severely lacking as it didn’t help us find trails or know what to do. E. I asked her if there was a bridge across the river…….she said, no, there isn’t. I had just learned that by looking at the map by the picnic tables near the parking area by the Entrance Station but that information is NOT on the map or any other information we were given. The park is beautiful and a true treasure. Adding some signage would help in two areas: 1) people could find the areas they want to see and 2) you would reduce the number of human-made trails and preserve more of the natural area.

Bottom line: Put some helpful signage on the trails in the park and improve the map by adding enlarged sections with specific information to help...

This is for the Epicenter, Five Finger falls hike in late August 80 deg F weather. Bring at least 1 quart (2 regular bottles) of water for each person, plus snacks and walking sticks for really tough creek crossings and climbs that are slippery in dry dirt, and probably even more so in wet conditions. Trail to the falls is well marked, but elevation change makes it seem longer. We returned via the Big Slide Trail to the Aptos Creek Fire Rd going back down. Not having come into the falls by that trail, we found a trail split that was not marked and ended up bearing left because the map indicates that there is a spur trail to the right to a little pond. However, that left trail took us up over the ridge and much further down the fire road (roughly paralleling it ). This was the right direction, but took much longer to get the road and concerned us because we thought we were lost. Using our phone GPS we new we were headed in the right direction, but it is enough of a well worn trail that the map should show it and it should have a marker indicating miles and difficulty vs the other trail. We are assuming that the right side of the trail split would have reached the fire road much sooner (we don't know because that was our first trip, we were going backwards, and there were two sets of hikers coming from the fire road that we passed who look happy and out for a short stroll. One had a baby in a front pack). The trail we used did not have a marker at the fire road either. I think it is a biker's single track--a very challenging one with several steep sides where bikers had obviously had a lot of trouble and slide downhill several yards. We also had the unpleasant experience of a motorcyclist on the fire road going down using some of the features there as motocross jumps. The unmarked trail could easily confuse people coming back from the Five Finger falls to the fire road if they were not paying much attention going in, or walking backwards from the Aptos creek trail...

Weird and occasionally overwhelming chlorine smell (and other bad, unidentified aromas) all through the park, especially near the water (Aptos Creek). We were on the trails at 6-7am. We filled our lungs with what we anticipated to be clean fresh air and... started coughing immediately.

I really recommend trails that go high up and don't follow the creek (we took the Aptos Creek trail to get to Sand Point Overlook). The area close to the water is also full of flies and mosquitos (you can hear a constant buzz around you). Once we got higher up (close to Sand Point) the bad smell was almost unnoticeable.

It could be from some residences close to the park entrance or they may be spraying next to the water to kill bugs... or there's something even more toxic happening.

It may be better to hike here during the cold months - fewer bugs, less decomposing wood, less need for toxic substances.

I agree with the other reviews: $8 entry fee (faith system) yet the signs are minimal. We managed not not get lost; I had a previously downloaded very detailed pdf map of the park - which was more helpful than what you can get at the entrance. I had no cellphone signal here of course. I used the pdf on parks dot gov website.

Yes, it's bike friendly and occasionally hiker unfriendly: a few bikers' speeds were fairly unsafe for the sometimes narrow and winding trails.

The view from Sand Point Overlook was great. We had fairly clear skies, enough for a very nice view/photo op.

There's a fairly long car ride to get to the head of the trail - on a pretty rough, one lane fire road. Come early or don't come at all. At 1pm, getting out, the traffic (both cars and hikers/bikers) was already pretty bad and the road became annoying to navigate with plenty of opportunities to end up in the ditch beside it. I guess we could have walked the narrow fire road but that's an extra 2 mile stretch that's occasionally shaded and not...