It is located outside Aptos, California, and contains over 40 miles (64 km) of hiking trails and fire roads through 10,223 acres (4,137 ha) of variable terrain.

The park was named after Nisene Marks, a passionate nature lover and the mother of a Salinas farming family who purchased the land from lumber companies and others in the hope of finding oil.

When drilling efforts failed, Marks' children, with the help of the Nature Conservancy, donated the original 9,700 acres (3,900 ha) to the state of California in her memory in 1963.

The park is on land that was clear-cut during a forty-year period of logging (1883–1923) by the Loma Prieta Lumber Company.

[2] The park offers rugged semi-wilderness, rising from sea level to steep coastal mountains of more than 2,600 feet (790 m).

This list includes banana slugs, which can be found in various forests in Santa Cruz, as well as California slender salamanders.