Trails
of Santa Cruz – Detail, Links, and Notes
Trails
of Santa Cruz – Detail, Links, and Notes
As
a sample detail, here is the Santa Cruz inset from the back
cover. Not much wilderness but there's plenty of that elsewhere. If all you
know of Santa Cruz is the Boardwalk and beaches, this is a great place from
which to start exploring in all directions. (Boardwalk parking is metered, so
for long walks pick any starting place that makes sense. Or if you stay at the
hostel or one of the many hotels, you can wake up a block from the baordwalk
and pick your adventure for the day).
A. The Boardwalk is a surprisingly accessible amusement park, since it sits in the coastal zone and a public promenade runs from one end to the other. Summer concerts and volleyball tournaments are staged on the beach. The place bustles on weekends, it slumbers in the winter and early mornings; pick your mood. (I will confess I have not field-checked the Giant Dipper).
B. From the east end of Beach Street a bike path crosses the San Lorenzo River, meeting East Cliff/Murray. Continue east to Tyrell Park, home to the Santa Cruz City Museum of Natural History, which tells about the area's native plants, animals and people. This cozy museum will eventually move to a new home near the Wharf. Their website (www.santacruzmuseums.org) has a voluminous "lynx" page of local stewardship organizations.
C. Bike paths follow both banks of the San Lorenzo River northward. Downtown Santa Cruz sits in the flood plain; bad floods in the 1950s prompted the construction of levees, so the paths provide great views across downtown towards the hills. You can loop back on the opposite bank, or explore the adjacent Ocean View and Beach Hill neighborhoods and saunter down Pacific Stret (the historic downtown, mostly rebuilt since the 1989 earthquake). A longer excursion would take you behind the clock tower, up the stairs to Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, which tells the story of Santa Cruz's many peoples in the city's oldest adobe (a remnant of the mission outbuildings).
D. From the Wharf (a stroll in and of itself) a bike path leads west to Depot Park, where you can head over to Neary Lagoon, a 44-acre wildlife refuge in the heart of the city. The city's other boardwalk is a delightful loop through the marsh and riparian forest, with many water birds.
E. Heading southwest from the Boardwalk, you can follow West Cliff Drive several miles. The paved promenade on the way to Lighthouse Field State Park overlooks the Wharf and Monterey Bay; on a clear day Monterey and the Santa Lucia Mountains sit far to the south looking almost like an island. Below the rising cliff is a stretch of bay known as Steamer Lane, a popular surfing spot with steady breaking waves. You can watch for hours, plus you can learn the history of surfing at the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum. West Cliff Drive continues west to Natural Bridges State Beach; you can retrace your steps at any point, or loop back through the adjacent neighborhoods, where humble ranch houses and bungalows rub elbows with fancy Victorian mansions.
This small map illustrates the connundrum I had making the overall map – I would set out to map the deepest reaches of Soquel Demonstration State Forest and I'd come across some little path or park in Santa Cruz that was in its own way just as worthy to be shown. Sometimes a string of these would take all day to map, and there goes my window for heading into the woods. Other days they'd be dessert at the end of a long, fine day. Neighborhood walks tended to induce house envy in my girlfriend, but were also conducive to romantic dinners on the town, so things worked out pretty well most visits.
I hope you have as much fun exploring downtown Santa Cruz and the other parks on the map as I had mapping them.
I am indebted to everyone who helped check this map and offered suggestions, and to all the people who ensured that our parks are protected and trails are maintained. Special thanks to local experts Daniel DeKimpe and Erik Goetze, plus Susan Willats and Maggie Fusari of UCSC.
Catalog • Trails of Santa Cruz page
I'm going to experiment by putting a few books and links here, until I upgrade my links page.
State Park Info: www.parks.ca.gov
and www.santacruzstateparks.org
Santa
Cruz County Parks: www.scparks.com
City of Santa Cruz Parks: www.santacruzparksandrec.com
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: www.farallones.org
Detailed map of UC Campus: http://maps.ucsc.edu
Santa
Cruz County Conference and Visitor Council: www.santacruz.org
On the map I list some essential guidebooks. Three that relate to this detail map are:
1. Jerry Emory's Monterey Bay Shoreline Guide (UC Press) is a handsome guide with great writeups and photographs of parks and places from Ano Nuevo to Santa Cruz and on down to Big Sur.
2. Hiking the California Coastal Trail, Volume 1, Oregon to Monterey (Bob Lorentzen and Richard Nichols, Bored Feet/Coastwalk) describes the coastal trail all through Santa Cruz County.
3. A new guide I discovered just as my map went to press is: Santa Cruz: A Guide for Runners, Joggers, and Serious Walkers by Eileen Brown and Steven Bignell, published by Journeyworks Publishing, Santa Cruz. Clear descriptions and excellent grayscale maps describe neighborhood loops, parks and greenbelts, plus the routes of many popular race routes. If you enjoy exploring neighborhoods, this book and our map go together well.
(Three good bookstores are at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Pacific St. and the visitor center as at Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, and the McPherson Center for Art and History).