Jacks Peak Park is a county park in Monterey County, California. Its central feature is Jacks Peak, the highest point on the Monterey Peninsula, rising 1,068 feet (325 m)[1] above Monterey and Carmel. The park encompasses 525[1] acres under control of the Monterey County Parks Department.
The park is part of the Pueblo Lands tract acquired in 1859 by Scottish immigrant David Jack.[1] The first 55 acres (220,000 m2) that were to become the park were purchased by Talcott and Margaret Pardee Bates in 1964.[1] They sold it to the Nature Conservancy, who eventually sold it to Monterey County.[1] In 1971, the county purchased the remaining acres for the park from Del Monte Properties.[1] The park opened in January, 1977.[1]
The park allows picnics and day hiking. Several miles of trails, including a self-guided nature trail, wrap around Jacks Peak and through the rest of the park.
The park includes one of only three remaining native stands of the Monterey Pine.[2] Flora in the park also includes madrone (arbutus menziesii), coastal scrub (including coyote brush (baccharis pilularis), California sagebrush, black sage, and ceanothus), poison oak, and the coast live oak.[3]
