Fort Ord marches to a different drum as coastal park

As seasonal wildflowers fade and spring stretches into summer, the grassy backcountry hills of Fort Ord National Monument are shifting from green to gold. On this vast former military base just 9 miles from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, wild turkeys wander where soldiers prepared for major 20th century conflicts. Hikers trek through former cavalry fields. Cycling trails wind past retired firing ranges, climbing peaks with views of Santa Cruz and beyond.

April marked five years since former President Barack Obama established a national monument on Fort Ord. One of two parks carved from the 28,000-acre post that closed in 1994, it provides an interior counterpart to the coastal Fort Ord Dunes State Park created in 2009. Following the monument’s fifth anniversary last month, both parks will commemorate the Fort Ord centennial throughout this year.

In 1917, the United States founded a sprawling military post north of Monterey. Artillery and cavalry troops assigned to Monterey’s Presidio trained at Giggling Military Reservation, Fort Ord’s predecessor. Eventually renamed for Civil War veteran Edward O.C. Ord, the installation was a major staging ground during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. More than 1.5 million soldiers trained at Fort Ord between 1940 and 1973, including actor Clint Eastwood, guitarist Jimi Hendrix and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

When it was decommissioned in the early 1990s, Fort Ord covered an area roughly the size of San Francisco. Today, Fort Ord National Monument occupies about half of that footprint. A 7,200-acre section of the monument opened to the public in 2012, after the U.S. Army removed munitions and transferred the parcel to the Bureau of Land Management. Remediation work on another 7,450 acres of parkland should wrap up between 2020 and 2025.

Currently, nearly 90 miles of trails connect hikers and bikers to diverse landscapes across the monument. The park has patches of rare maritime chaparral habitat, a blend of manzanitas, wild lilacs and shrubby chamise plants, in addition to seasonal wildflowers, oak woodlands and hillsides lush with perennial grasses. Animals roaming the park range from bobcats and coyotes to deer, American badgers and the occasional fox.

“The Monterey Bay has lots of beautiful places to visit, but it’s rare to find this kind of open space where you’re likely to see interesting wildlife almost every day,” says Eric Morgan, manager of the BLM Fort Ord National Monument.

In advance of the centennial, Morgan and his team rolled out new entrance and trail signage to guide park visitors; graphics on the signs recognize the military personnel who served here as well. Park officials are also working with civic leaders and transit planners to establish the Fort Ord Rec Trail and Greenway. In November, Monterey County voters approved a tax measure to fund the proposed multipurpose path that would link monument lands with several Monterey Peninsula cities and the California State University Monterey Bay campus located on Fort Ord.

Portions of the Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, a rail-to-trail route between Pacific Grove and Castroville, would double as the new greenway and trail’s western leg. That recreational trail already crosses through Fort Ord Dunes State Park, the coastal complement to Fort Ord National Monument.

Army crews cleared lead-contaminated soil and dismantled 75 small buildings before opening the state park’s 979 beachfront acres. Eight years later, trails here pass former firing ranges, a weathered guard tower and several World War II storage bunkers.

The infrastructure helps illustrate Fort Ord’s evolution from bustling post to serene park.

“If you take the path down to the beach, you’re surrounded by open space. It’s amazing, because you’re not far from Monterey, but there is real solitude as you walk along the coast,” says Pat Clark-Gray, a California State Parks interpretive specialist whose late husband helped establish Fort Ord Dunes State Park. This summer, she and her colleagues will commemorate the Fort Ord centennial with guided hikes that explore the base’s military history.

These days, the park’s restored sand dunes provide a rich habitat for native plants and threatened species. Sandy-hued Western snowy plovers nest along 4 miles of beachfront. California legless lizards burrow below the surface, foraging for spiders and small insects. Smith’s blue butterflies, first designated as a federally endangered species in 1976, flutter among the paddle-shaped leaves and pom-pom flowers of coast and seacliff buckwheat.

A Smith’s blue butterfly segment is one of two new stops added to the Fort Ord Dunes State Park cell phone tour this spring. Audio from the free tour corresponds with numbered signs spotlighting the park’s natural and military heritage. One stop introduces plans for a 98-site campground with tent, RV and hike- and bike-in sites, plus a campfire center, multiuse building and interpretive elements. Pending permits and funding approvals, construction will begin in 2018.

“Currently, our closest state park campgrounds are Watsonville’s Sunset State Beach to the north and Pfeiffer Big Sur to the south,” says Clark-Gray. “This would be an exciting option right on the Monterey Bay.”

If You Go

Fort Ord National Monument: Popular starting points are the Badger Hills Trailhead, accessible from Highway 68 near San Benancio Road, and the Creekside Trailhead, accessible from Reservation Road via Highway 68 or Highway 1. Check the park website for Fort Ord anniversary events, including a public lands cleanup and a 10-kilometer race honoring fallen soldiers in the fall. (831) 582-2200; www.blm.gov.

Fort Ord Dunes State Park: From southbound Highway 1, exit at Lightfighter Drive and follow the signs toward the coast. Visit the website for details on guided history hikes, a September beach cleanup and other centennial plans. (831) 649-2836; www.parks.ca.gov.