After 2020 wildfire, building planners re-imagining Big Basin State Park

Planners are re-imagining Big Basin State Park after it was devastated by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire in 20202.

At Big Basin State Park, nature has been healing itself since the fire.

The die-hard redwood trees, that are in some cases thousands of years old, are still charred black on the outside. But from the inside, new green branches are sprouting.

"It's still a very magical place. The feeling of being here is almost unmatched," said Tony Carranza who came with his wife Corina from Simi Valley to hike what he still considers his favorite place in California.

"It made me a little emotional walking around and hiking around today, because I remember what it looked like before the fire," Carranza said.

In August of 2020, lightning strikes started devastating fires that consumed 86,000 acres in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties, including almost all of Big Basin State Park.

Every one of the park's historic buildings were burned to the ground. And today, the chimney of the old lodge built in 1911 stands like a solitary gravestone over what was lost.

"This is where the most iconic building in Big Basin was, the administration building," said  Will Fourt, the Senior Project Planner for the group which is now re-imagining the future of Big Basin.

Fourt said it's a future that will not rebuild on the historic building sites.

"We're not planning to rebuild everything the way it was. This area is the former administration building, this area will have a much lighter footprint," he said.

This week, Big Basin is unveiling plans that call for moving the main visitor parking lots, camp grounds, concessions and administration to the Saddle Mountain area on the south eastern edge of the park.

Under the plan, visitors will take shuttle buses to popular trail heads. The current paved lots, which are surrounded by old growth redwoods, will be restored to a natural forest floor for trees long term health.

And although the old historic lodges cannot be rebuilt, the new buildings will echo some of their design features.

"Experiences that people love about Big Basin, of coming to see the old growth trees, hiking, camping, spending the night in the redwoods," Fourt said. "That will still be possible. The changes will be less paving here in the heart of the old growth, less structures. It will be a more natural experience."

Some Saddle Mountain neighbors, who live near the proposed activity centers have complained about increased traffic and noise.

But park visitors KPIX spoke to are embracing the changes, including a family from Hungary.

They first visited six years ago and still have their old cell phone photos to prove it. After hearing about the fire in their home country, they still wanted to come back.

"Restoring some of the manmade structures that would be important for visitors would be OK.  But I think nature, it should be first," said Dalma Peteni.

Putting nature first is the driving element of the new Big Basin plan, a plan that could help the living monuments survive for centuries longer.

More public meetings are planned to review site designs. A decision to select a preferred plan is scheduled for some time next year.