Ben Lomond is a census-designated place (CDP) located in California and the mountain’s name to the west. Both were named after a mountain in Scotland by John Burns, a Scotsman who settled in the area. In the 1800s, he came to be one of the first vintners of San Francisco. Ben Lomond, which is located in the San Lorenzo Valley, also offers its home to the giant Basin Redwoods. Established in 1902, it is California’s oldest state park open to the public.
Set deep in the mountains of Santa Cruz, its most prominent attraction is its ancient redwood trees, with several over 300 feet tall and more than 50 feet around. Some are even at the age of anywhere from 1000 to 1800 years old and may even predate the Roman Empire. The Basin Redwoods is the birthplace of the most significant collection of ancient coastal redwoods south of the Bay. The park is lush with gorgeous waterfall canyons and local wildlife. For those who love bird watching, the park is a great location to look at the California woodpeckers. The State Park conserves more than tens of thousands of acres, making the ecosystem uniquely ancient to the redwood trees.