Camp Chesebrough is a, 544 acre site located in the Santa Cruz Mountains just west of Highway 9, 1.8 miles south of Skyline Boulevard, between Castle Rock State Park and Long Ridge Open Space Preserve. Property Description
Camp Chesebrough is a, 544 acre site located in the Santa Cruz Mountains just west of Highway 9, 1.8 miles south of Skyline Boulevard, between Castle Rock State Park and Long Ri
dge Open Space Preserve. The property is principally mixed conifer forest, with oak, some chaparral and riparian habitats. The off-trail terrain is steep and rugged with elevations ranging from 1,800 feet to over 2,400 feet just below Highway 9. A number of intermittent springs and streams feed into Oil Creek at the lowest point of the site. An entry road leads about 400 yards down from Highway 9 to a main juncture, from which roads branch off to: 1) the upper camp sites of Madrone, Ohlone and Redwood, 2) to Valley Lodge and the Swenson Administrative Building, 3) to the main parking lot, 4) down to the lower campsites of Shingle Mills and Shingle Mills Point, and further down to Oil Creek, 5) over to the corporate yard., and 6) out to the helicopter landing pad. Improvements include the Valley Lodge training center, the Swenson Administrative Building, three restroom buildings, the Pump House, a covered platform for the Archery Range, a covered platform for the BB-Gun Range, three large water tanks, a Climbing Wall, an outdoor campfire program amphitheater, a Scout’s Own outdoor program area, a sand volleyball court and two horseshoe pitches. Trails include stairways from the main parking lot up to the lodge and administrative buildings and to the upper camp sites, the Twilight Trail from the upper campsites out to Red Mountain Overlook just below Highway 9, the trail from the main parking lot down to the campfire program area, the Nature Trail which follows the road from the main parking lot down to lower campsites. The Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, which was originally constructed by a collaboration of members of the local Sierra Club, the Sempervirens Club, the Boy Scouts of America, and others. Camp Chesebrough is home to many wild animals, including deer, coyote, fox, raccoons, skunks, wild (feral) pigs, bobcats, and occasionally bears and mountain lions, to name just a few. Birds inhabiting the area include stellar jays, many species of thrushes, warblers, woodpeckers, the yellow-throated vireo, Acadian flycatcher, rose-breasted grosbeak, and several species of cuckoos. Broad-winged and Cooper’s hawks also breed in the area, and barred owls, whip-poor-wills and wild turkeys are also found in the area. Native trees include coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), Douglas fir, Monterey pine, Ponderosa pine several species of live oak and deciduous oak, big-leaf maple, California buckeye, California laurel or bay and madrone. Other native plants include wild ginger, brook foam, creek dogwood, California hazelnut, wood fern, California strawberry, tanoak or tanbark oak, California blackberry, thimbleberry, blue elderberry, knobcone pine, western sword fern, bracken fern, California coffeeberry, wood rose, woodwardia fern, yerba Buena, creeping snowberry, California nutmeg, poison oak and the hoary nettle.
