Miller Property County Park: Boulder Creek's Newest Place to Hike

Boulder Creek picked up a new park last year, and it's the kind that doesn't announce itself. Miller Property County Park sits on Kings Creek Road about three miles north of town, a short turn off Highway 9, and Santa Cruz County Parks opened it to the public in August 2025 after the land spent decades closed to nearly everyone. It's 410 acres along Kings Creek, open sunrise to sunset daily, and the quiet is the main amenity.

The opening delivered the basics, as the San Lorenzo Valley Post described it: a gated drive-through entry, a groomed dirt parking lot, a portable restroom, a picnic table, a temporary footbridge over the creek, and new signage on Highway 9. This is open space with a modest trail network, not a park with a lawn. Facilities are basic and still evolving, so arrive self-sufficient: water, a map that doesn't need a signal, and pack out what you pack in. Dogs are welcome on leash; fires, alcohol, and motorized vehicles aren't.

What's up there

The land climbs from the creek corridor through oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and grassland, and it holds about 38 acres of old-growth redwoods, per the Post's reporting. Kings Creek and Kings Creek Road split the property; the entrance sits about 1.2 miles off Highway 9. For now the walking follows a small network of informal trails near the creek, and no particular route is promised on a given day; parts of the property are an active work site.

The trail network that's coming

Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship and County Parks kicked off construction of a three-mile multi-use trail network in July 2026, with work running through spring 2027. The plan upgrades the existing informal trails and adds new connections, including a route to the old-growth grove, for hikers, cyclists, equestrians, and leashed dogs. If you'd rather build a trail than wait for one, SCMTS runs weekly public volunteer days at the property; the current schedule lives at santacruztrails.org/events. Separately, a shaded fuel break project with CAL FIRE will thin vegetation along Kings Creek Road to reduce wildfire risk, with early field days tentatively slated for December, per the Post.

How it became a park

The property carries eighty years of almost-was. As the Post tells it, Adolph C. Miller and Mary Sprague Miller deeded a portion of the land to the University of California in 1942, and UC Santa Cruz bought the rest in 1952. Part of it ran as a campground from 1967 to 1974. When the university declared the land surplus in the early 1990s, timber companies bid on it; the UC Regents turned them down and approved a $2.4 million sale to Save the Redwoods League in July 1994. The League donated the property to Santa Cruz County in March 2001, and then it sat, a park on paper, until Measure K, the half-cent sales tax county voters passed in March 2024, plus $100,000 in county funds, paid to open the gate. One holdover from the earlier eras made it through intact: the old pet cemetery is still up there.

Before you go

Check the county's Miller Property page for current conditions, especially while trail construction runs. Poison oak is a given along the creek, cell coverage is thin on Kings Creek Road, and there's no staffed anything at the property. For a groomed park instead, see our parks and playgrounds guide; for the big trail day, start with Big Basin's current status.

Related reading

• Hiking in and Around Boulder Creek: Where the Trails Are
• How Big Basin Became California's First State Park
• Every Park a Kid Can Play At in the Valley
• Where to Swim Near Boulder Creek

Last reviewed August 7, 2026. Details come from Santa Cruz County Parks, Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, and San Lorenzo Valley Post reporting; access changes while trail work is underway, so check the county's page before you drive.

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