Fall Creek Unit

The Fall Creek Unit is the quiet northern part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park: a 2,390-acre, fern-lined canyon of second-growth redwoods about a quarter mile west of Felton, with almost 20 miles of connecting trails. It is open for day use only, and its trailheads are on Felton Empire Road off Highway 9. The best-known walk leads to the ruins of 19th-century lime kilns. Dogs, bikes, camping, smoking and fires are not allowed.

What Fall Creek Is Like

California State Parks describes Fall Creek as a second-growth redwood forest in a fern-lined river canyon, with the remains of a lime-processing industry in the woods. The unit covers nearly the whole Fall Creek watershed, running southeast from Ben Lomond Mountain. It feels different from the main park: no paved roads, no campground, and far fewer people than the Redwood Grove.

The Mountain Parks Foundation, the park's nonprofit partner, says most of the trails follow old wagon and logging roads that once led to busy industrial sites, and counts 12 named trails from 0.2 to 4.8 miles long.

Getting There and Parking

Parking and trailheads are marked along Felton Empire Road, which leaves Highway 9 in Felton. Fall Creek has no entrance station of its own, and it is not connected by road to the main day-use area or campground; see parking and directions.

The Lime Kilns

Route: from the south end of the unit, take Bennett Creek Trail to Fall Creek Trail to South Fork Trail. About 3 miles round trip, 300 feet of climbing. Near the end the redwoods give way to madrone and tanoak.

The kilns are the reason Fall Creek looks the way it does. The Ben Lomond Fault along the base of the mountain exposes a great deal of limestone, and in kilns the rock was baked for days to make lime for mortar and plaster. California State Parks says that at the peak of demand 80 percent of California's lime came from Santa Cruz County, and that hundreds of thousands of cords of redwood were burned to keep kiln fires going, which stripped the hills. The Fall Creek kilns closed in 1919. Today they stand along the South Fork Trail, with second-growth redwoods growing back around them.

The foundation adds detail from its own history: the IXL Lime Company built three granite-block kilns in the early 1870s, Henry Cowell bought the operation in 1900, and a water-powered barrel mill was added on the creek in 1912 to make the barrels the lime shipped in. The lime travelled by wagon to Felton, by rail to Santa Cruz and by ship to San Francisco.

Big Ben

Almost all of Fall Creek's old redwoods were cut to feed the kilns. One that survived is Big Ben, about six feet in diameter. From the kilns, California State Parks sends you on the Cape Horn Trail to the Lost Empire Trail for another 2.7 miles; the whole outing is about 7.5 miles round trip with 1,400 feet of climbing. For a shorter visit, park where the Sunlit Trail starts on Empire Grade: about half a mile gets you to Big Ben, though you skip the kilns.

Rules in Fall Creek

• Day use only, sunrise to sunset.
• No dogs, even on a leash. The main unit allows leashed dogs on a few routes; see dogs.
• No bicycles. Ride Pipeline, Rincon, Ridge or Powder Mill fire roads in the main unit instead; see mountain biking.
• No camping, smoking or fires.
• Horses only on designated trails.
• Some routes cross private land by permission. Stay on the trail.

After the CZU Fire

Parts of Fall Creek were closed after the CZU Fire in August 2020. The Mountain Parks Foundation reports that all trails have reopened, and asks hikers to use the boot-brush stations at the trailheads so they do not carry non-native seeds into the burn area. Check the California State Parks page for any current trail notice before you go.

Good For / Maybe Skip If

Good for: hikers who want shade, solitude and a historic destination, and people who like a creek beside the trail.

Maybe skip if: you are bringing a dog or a bike (neither is allowed), or you want old-growth giants. For those, the Redwood Grove Loop in the main unit is the place.