Wilbur's Watch Hiking Trail Tour (Self-guided)
Wilbur's Watch, funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is dedicated to Colburn Wilbur for his tireless efforts and dedication to the preservation of California's native landscape. Cole served as the Executive Director of the Packard Foundation from its inception in 1976 to his retirement in 1999. On his watch, the Foundation helped to protect thousands of acres of land, from the California Coast to the Sierra Nevada.
The trail, which is located on the POST-protected 6,452-acre Cloverdale Coastal Ranches, will lead you from a small parking lot east of Highway 1 and adjacent to Pigeon Point Road on a moderate up hill hike to a breathtaking lookout.
Along the way, you'll be surrounded by the lush grassland and native coastal scrub that dominates the landscape here. Stretching in a narrow band along the California coast, coastal scrub is made of short evergreen shrubs and other plants that include coyote brush, California blackberry, coffeeberry, soaproot, poison oak, and California lilac. Coastal scrub provides cover and habitat for an array of songbirds, rodents, reptiles, falcons, and hawks. Many of these coastal plants have scented oils in their leaves that you can smell as you walk.
At the lookout you'll find recycled redwood benches that allow you to relax and take in the view or picnic. An interpretive sign here tells of the surrounding area that you'll be viewing. Through the telescope you can see gray whales migrating along shore in late fall and spring as they migrate between the cold Arctic sea and their winter calving and breeding grounds in Baja California.
While you're visiting this part of the Coast, you may also want to make a trip across Highway 1 to see the Pigeon Point Light Station. A Conservation in Action sign at the adjacent Whaler's Cove tells about the process of restoring the landscape. Just a short drive south on Highway 1 is the Año Nuevo State Reserve, home to the largest mainland population of northern elephant seals in the world. The area also provides habitat for other marine mammals including Steller sea lions (which live on Año Nuevo Island) and harbor seals, and is a nesting area for many birds.