On August 16th of 2020, during a dry lightning storm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a wildfire began that would leave a lasting impact on California’s oldest State Park. Big Basin Redwoods State Park suffered from the impacts of the CZU Lightning Complex Fire leaving 98% of the park burned and changing the landscape and infrastructure of the park for generations to come. Since re-opening the park on July 20th of 2022, Big Basin has continued to feel the wrath of a changing climate through flooding and landslides caused by atmospheric rivers in early January and fallen trees due to high winds and saturated landscapes. Despite all of these catastrophes, California State Parks has remained committed to striving to serve the public through equitable and sustainable access to Big Basin Redwoods’ natural, cultural, and historic resources. On June 3rd, California State Parks sought a new vision to re-imagine this unique moment of resilience and recovery in Big Basin’s history through the eyes of 18 artists from across California participating in the first camping trip since the CZU fire.

See below to learn more!

California State Parks publicized the opportunity for artists to join CASPBA (California State Parks Backpacking Adventures) staff in the spring of 2023 and received well over 80 applicants from artists of a wide variety of mediums. Through collaboration with local universities, artist communities, and cooperating associations like Mountain Parks Foundation and Parks California, 18 artists were selected to participate in this unique opportunity.  As a result of their experience, Artists will each create a unique art piece in their preferred medium be it music, poetry, painting, sketching, ceramics, wood carving, or mixed multi-media projects. During their visit, “Art Aboutists,” as they were so aptly named, had the opportunity to join California State Park experts in fire ecology, Big Basin history, for guided recreational experiences in the park. Around the campfire in the evening, artists were joined by members of the local indigenous community, park historians, interpreters, and California State Parks Director Armando Quintero. This community laid the foundation for deep and meaningful discussions surrounding Big Basin’s past, present, and future maintaining our goals for equity and sustainability close at hand. 

When asked about her experience, participating fiber artist Laura Fogg commented, “I approached Big Basin State Park under a gloomy cloud of my own creation, thinking I would be swamped in a storm of heavy “D-words” like devastation, disaster and destruction. The big surprise for me turned out to be the other side of that real and undeniably sad story… I found myself surrounded by health. Almost all of the blackened redwood trunks are now bristling with stubby new branches and putting out rings of vigorous new clones around their roots. The abundance of wildflowers on the newly sunlit slopes is almost overwhelming, and there are multiple species of birds going about their noisy business, obviously finding what they need to sustain themselves in this re-growing forest.”  

Book artist Donna Thomas shared “I was impressed by the park’s focus of looking at the best ways to have a lighter footprint, to increase equitable access to the park, its dedication to understanding the science of the ecological processes, and its desire to make it relevant for all of our different cultures.”  We hope that these artists' connections to Big Basin will help to create inspired pieces with help the public to gain a deeper understanding of this unique moment in Big Basin’s history as we transition from devastation to inspiration and explore the loss and longing that we all experience when visiting Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  

Once completed, we hope to hold an exhibition of all art pieces in Big Basin where members of the general public will have the opportunity to connect not only with this park's natural, cultural, and historic resources. Following this public showcase, we hope that these art pieces will travel across the state to regional galleries, museums, and public buildings to inspire visitors to return to Big Basin with a curious mind and full heart. Lastly, these art pieces will enjoy a permanent installation in the park upon the completion of a new visitor center or museum to help interpret the resilience and literal rise from the ashes of California’s oldest state park. To stay up to date on this project, and learn more about how you can get involved, be sure to follow us on our social media channels @santacruzmountainsstateparks and @BigBasin_sp. For questions, please email bigbasin@ports-ca.us. We look forward to seeing you again at Big Basin real soon!!