The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, followed the coast in this area on its way north, camping at today's Majors Creek (now the northern park boundary) on October 18, 1769.

Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi noted in his diary the difficulty of moving along this part of the coast: "The road on this march was very troublesome, on account of the frequent gulches [arroyos] along the way.

The 2,305 acres (9.33 km2) parcel contains many long trails, extending from the northern boundary of Wilder Ranch to the University of California at Santa Cruz campus.

The "Gray Whale Ranch" had been zoned only for logging but was considered for further development before the Save the Redwoods League, a private conservation group, bought the land in 1996 for $13.4 million and transferred it to the State Parks Department.

[citation needed] Spelunking is one popular activity at Gray Whale Ranch, although most cavers try to prevent the location of the caves from becoming widely known.

The main destination for contemporary explorers to the Hell Hole is the "Hall of Faces", a clay room where people leave sculptures and sign a book at the very bottom.

Getting to the Hall of Faces is no easy task, and requires descending the 90 foot (27 m) vertical called "Purgatory Pit", which itself accessed via some further narrow tunnels from the Party Room.

The long, narrow Reserve area is bounded by the mean high tide line and a distance of 200 feet seaward of mean lower low water.