Photo | Couple shares a kiss at The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park

APTOS - Ana Crum and William Garcia steal a kiss, at bottom, while walking along the Split Stuff Trail at The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park not far from the park's Aptos Creek Road entrance station.

The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park spans over 10,000 acres, offering hikers, runners and cyclists 30 miles of trails in rugged semi-wilderness, rising from sea level to steep coastal mountains of more than 2,600 feet.

Originally inhabited by the Ohlone people, the land was clear cut by the Loma Prieta Lumber Co. between 1883 and 1923, removing an estimated 140 million board feet of lumber from the forest. The California State Parks website states, "While some historians note that certain operations may have focused on high-yield, intense logging rather than a flawless blanket clear-cut, the environmental impact was devastating, leaving behind extensive logging scars. Today, the forest serves as an impressive monument to regeneration, where towering second-growth redwoods have naturally healed the landscape over the last century."

Nisene Marks was a Salinas-area rancher whose husband died young. Widowed and raising three children, Marks' egg business grew, and the family invested in real estate, developing substantial holdings around Monterey Bay. The land on which the current state park sits was donated by the Marks family in 1963 in memory of their mother under the condition it be preserved and regenerated. The epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake is located in the park and can be accessed on foot on the Aptos Creek Trail and is about a 6-mile out-and-back hike from the Porter Family Picnic Area.

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