Getting to Big Basin Redwoods State Park by Public Transportation

Miller is an entrepreneurial teen from San Francisco who plans unique fun trips to destinations across the state. The turn? Just use public transportation.

Today’s destination is Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the oldest state park in California, which reopened in July, following the CZU Lightning Complex fires that completely burned the park in 2020.

The plan was to travel via Amtrak and two bus lines, but Amtrak’s morning train to San Jose hit a snag. Minutes of delays began to accumulate. The Highway 17 Express to Santa Cruz, the next link in the travel chain, is a crucial component of the journey.

“Worst case scenario, there’s another bus from San Jose to Santa Cruz at 10:20,” Miller said, already adjusting to the unknown. He can’t plan for a traffic delay, but he can always have a backup bus in mind.

Miller is a member of a group of teen transit enthusiasts in the Bay Area, “Twitter Transit Besties,” who have organically connected online or at transit events to advocate for public transportation. They walk routes, exchange opinions, and sometimes encourage the occasional policy adjustment. Depending on who you ask at the local transit agencies, they’re either improving the system from the inside out or they’re teenage horseflies pointing out mistakes that the adults on the train tend to overlook.

Miller turned 17 this month. When she’s not hailing a bus to Yosemite or speaking during public comment periods at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency meetings, she’s navigating her junior year at Lowell High School. The academic year has just started, and this year he is challenging himself to improve his writing skills by joining the journalism class. He is likely to take the pulse of the traffic.

“We’re back on the move,” Miller texted as the Amtrak continued south.

After about an hour’s delay, he disembarked in San José. Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the multicolored lines of the Muni light rail system, she offered an enthusiastic handshake and got in line to board the bus.

The next link in the journey was the 17 Express over the Santa Cruz Mountains, but the coastal sea layer prevented any expansive views.

Miller is a veteran of the transit system, starting while growing up in the Richmond district. He rode the 2 Clement to preschool and has always chosen to ride the bus to school ever since. He remembers attending a traffic public meeting when he was about 6 years old with his mother, who was interested in a development for the M line to Park Merced.

When he was in high school four years ago, Miller started talking. “The first time I spoke was at an electric bus meeting,” she recalled. “I said something really stupid about how I liked the paint job. But then I said that they should expand the trolleybus system.”

Miller stands out among a sea of ​​regular participants who speak during SFMTA meetings. SFMTA Board President Gwyneth Borden and former board member Sharon Lai once recognized him simply from his voice. He is active in bringing blind spots to the attention of transit leaders, such as when routes are changed and how the removal of a bus stop affects riders.

For a route change near Mount Davidson, Miller walked the line to see who was getting off at a stop that was scheduled to change. He would later present the board with concrete data that his plan could force several older cyclists up a hill.

His aggressive commitment to public transportation is leading him to the start of a political career: He says he will join the San Francisco Youth Commission in September.

As the 17 express bus approaches Scotts Valley, Miller realizes that he will not be able to catch the connecting bus to Big Basin due to the initial train delay. He consults his resources (including the Pantograph app, which tracks the Bay Area transit system in real time) and devises a new plan to maximize wait time.

Pick Felton to kill the hour before the next 35 bus arrives at Big Basin and order three tacos from Taqueria Vallarta near the bus stop.

Every time Miller visits a new community, he explores it through his transit. Earlier this summer, she visited her family in New York and asked her Twitter followers for suggestions. She opted for the bus less traveled, rather than a train over the Williamsburg Bridge, which offered a unique perspective. The photo on the iPhone screen of her is a photo she took of a New York City Subway J train, stopped on a balmy afternoon.

When Miller looks at a traffic map, his eyes naturally gravitate to the fine lines. The thicker the line, the more frequent the route, and Miller would rather take something less common.

“If there is so little service, I have to mount it before it’s over,” he said.

When asked about driving a car, Miller smiles. “Maybe one day I’ll need a car to go to the Western Railroad Museum,” he said of the historic train hub in rural Solano County. “But I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

To his credit, he learned to drive a car but does not possess a license.

Train views are the best https://t.co/gmGNHKRwPg

— Hayden – Yes on J for JFK, Yes on L for Muni (@HaydenM16) August 25, 2022

Miller replaces the thrill of the open road with the endless exploration of overlapping transit lines and how to improve the system. He is fascinated by operations and will probably get a degree in urban planning. Some of his greatest joys in transit are trolleybuses and how he can access nature through transit. Some of his favorite annoyances are when weekend schedules impede access, like AC Transit not operating lines to Tilden Regional Park on Saturday and Sunday.

“I think a lot of people don’t get involved, especially young people,” he said. “I’m going to ride these buses in the future, and it’s the world I’m going to inherit. I want to make the changes now.”

The 35 bus to Big Basin pulled into Fulton and Miller took a seat in the back. This bus line connects Santa Cruz proper with the state park, but only during the summer. The line debuted in July, coinciding with the reopening of the Big Basin after a two-year closure due to fires.

There used to be more frequent bus service to the Big Basin, but it ended in 2016 after budget cuts, Danielle Glagola, a spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, told SFGATE.

The plan now is for the 35 bus line to run to Big Basin through 9/11. “With the return of schools, we will have to assign our drivers to more essential routes in the city,” Glagola said. “We hope to do this bus every summer when school trips are not in session.”

The 35 bus screeches to a stop in the Big Basin parking lot. A few UC Santa Cruz students are dragging their feet. There to greet the bus are Rick and Miyoko Fillman from Scotts Valley, who are waiting to catch the bus back. They rode out in the morning and were impressed by how much the park had begun to grow. Miller asked how they would have traveled here without the 35 bus.

“I would have gone to the trouble of finding out the parking situation,” Rick replied.

Currently, there are only 88 parking spaces available by reservation at Big Basin. A state park ranger told SFGATE that reserves have sold out every weekend since it opened.

The state park is in a clear phase of rejuvenation. There are new facilities for interpreters to guide visitors, but they are DIY, made out of sheds or containers rather than a building. Almost all of the trees, with the exception of a few oaks in the parking lot, are charred black.

The wildfire burned about 97% of the Big Basin, but walking the Dool Trail is no moody procession. Instead, it highlights the gradual return to fertility. Greens have begun to grow into some of the redwoods, while much effort has gone into strengthening the trails to safely welcome visitors.

The Dool Trail ends with a nearly panoramic view of the Big Basin Valley. Miller pulls out his phone to take some photos. Scorched tree tops dot the mountain tops, resembling a buzz cut, but life springs forth eternally. The sweet smell of natural maple is emitted from California everlasting, or Pseudognaphalium californicum, that line the trail.

On the walk back to the parking lot, Miller answers a question about Vision Zero SF, the city’s traffic safety policy with the goal of creating a culture that puts traffic safety first. He complains about the process progressing at a snail’s pace.

“Any time there is a project in San Francisco, it gets diluted,” he said. “As a city, we have established our values ​​and we are a transit-first city. But we have to constantly repeat: does this project reflect our values? It wears people down.”

The 35 bus back to Scotts Valley, which connects with the 17 Express to San Jose before taking a train to San Francisco, is on time. Miller comes aboard.

His backpack has a logo for the Trust for Public Land, the nonprofit organization where his father works. With all these trips across the state and the occasional traffic mistake, do her parents ever worry about her?

“My parents were worried that I would get stuck and have to be rescued,” Miller said before smiling. “But to this day, I’ve never been stuck.”