Memorial Park (San Mateo County)
Roy W. Cloud came to visit a school. He left determined to save a forest. In the spring of 1923, the San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools traveled to the remote Wurr School in Harrison Canyon and found himself surrounded by old-growth redwoods of staggering beauty. A lumber company had just acquired the land and intended to cut every tree. Cloud went directly to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and recommended that the area be purchased and preserved. A committee of prominent citizens toured the site, compared it favorably with Big Basin, and unanimously agreed. Three hundred and fourteen acres were acquired from the lumber company, and on July 4, 1924, Memorial Park was dedicated -- with all 300 campsites occupied on opening day.
Giants Along the Creek
Memorial Park encompasses 673 acres of redwood forest, creek swimming areas, and campfire gathering spots in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Loma Mar. Pescadero Creek runs through the park, providing winter habitat for steelhead trout as it collects water from Bloomquist, Hoffman, McCormick, and Peterson Creeks within the park boundaries. Eight miles of hiking trails wind through the forest, from the easy Creek Trail to the strenuous Pomponio Canyon Trail. The Mt. Ellen Summit Trail climbs to views across the surrounding ridges. On typical summer nights, more than 1,500 people camp within the park, continuing a tradition that began when those first visitors arrived in 1924.
A Network of Redwoods
Memorial Park anchors the Pescadero-Memorial Park Complex, a group of county parks formed by decades of land acquisitions. Sam McDonald County Park was acquired in 1958, Pescadero Creek County Park in 1968, and Heritage Grove was added later. Together they form a continuous corridor of protected redwood forest that connects to Portola Redwoods State Park and, via trail easements across private lands, to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District's Russian Ridge and Skyline Ridge preserves border the complex to the east. This network means a hiker can walk from the valley floor to the coast entirely on public land.
A Century of Campfires
Starting in October 2019, the San Mateo County Parks Department began the first major renovation of overnight camping facilities since the park opened in 1924 -- a renovation nearly a century overdue. The park's 158 campsites are divided among named camp areas, supplemented by day-use areas, a visitor center, a camp store, and two sites reserved for youth groups at Homestead Flat and Redwood Flat. That a school superintendent's impulse to save trees in 1923 could produce a park that still draws thousands of campers annually speaks to something fundamental about what these forests offer: shade that is older than any building in the county, quiet that no app can replicate, and the particular coolness of a redwood creek in summer.
From the Air
Memorial Park is at 37.28°N, 122.29°W in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Loma Mar. The park's dense redwood canopy is visible as a dark green corridor in the mountains west of Skyline Boulevard. Nearby airports: Half Moon Bay (KHAF), San Carlos (KSQL). Best viewed at 3,000-5,000 ft AGL.