This self guided mobile tour features five different beaches along the Santa Cruz, California coast. Each beach is part of California’s statewide program to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). MPAs are similar in concept to national parks and forests on land. The goal is to protect and restore ocean habitats and increase the health, productivity, and resilience of ocean ecosystems.
The tour spans approximately 47 miles, from Elkhorn Slough at the apex of the Monterey Bay to Año Nuevo State Park just north of the line where Santa Cruz County becomes San Mateo County. It’s a beautiful driving tour, but make sure to leave time to stop and explore each beach. You’ll learn about elephant seals, shipwrecks, kelp ecology, geology, how native peoples interacted with the coastal environment, and more.
Each MPA beach in the tour is highlighted below. All of the stories are in our free Mobile Ranger Guides app, which is available for Apple and Android devices. You can also read the stories in blog form (as we release them weekly) by following the links at the bottom of this page.
Elkhorn Slough
Here, you’ll stop at the wildlife viewing area along Highway 1 and learn about the slough’s salt ponds and how sea otters help keep the eel grass in check. You’ll also see how agricultural practices close to the slough have changed in the last few decades.
Seacliff State Beach
Look for the famous “cement” ship, the SS Palo Alto (it’s really a concrete ship), and then learn how it was actually the last-ditch backup plan for a much more grandiose beachfront resort that wasn’t.
Natural Bridges State Beach
Stop at Natural Bridges State Beach and discover where all of the bridges have gone, how “Fabulous Fred Swanton” almost turned it into a hotel and resort in the 1910s, and why so many monarch butterflies hang out here.
Greyhound Rock
You’ll find out whether this Santa Cruz County park is aptly named, how the native peoples of the area used its shells to get rich, and why there is no nuclear power plant anywhere near this beach today.
Año Nuevo State Park
Here, you will walk out to Cove Beach and learn the history of kelp harvesting and how it affected the local surfers, find out exactly where William Waddell’s second wharf was located, be amazed by elephant seal feeding habits, and probably be glad you were not a lighthouse keeper at Point Año Nuevo.
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The mouth of the Elkhorn Slough has long been known for its natural salt ponds. In the late 1800s these areas were developed to produce salt for local use ...
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https://vimeo.com/54345516 The S.S. Palo Alto is a curious oddity with a rich history. It has also become an inspiration to artists who use it to inspire ...
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It’s usually a fair bet that where there is a lighthouse, there is a history of shipwrecks. The area around Point Año Nuevo along California’s Highway 1 b ...
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Teeming with more than 300 species of invertebrates, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, the Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area on California's ...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgkvDnT7Rvo&feature=youtu.be Today, much of the land surrounding Elkhorn Slough near Monterey, California, is managed to r ...
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Almost a century ago, there were big plans for the northern California coastline along Seacliff State Beach. But sometimes, even the grandest of plans can ...
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The name Natural Bridges may seem deceiving when you first visit the state beach at the end of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California. Just one pictur ...
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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) run along the coastline of California. They were created to maintain the precarious balance between keeping places wild and ...
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Greyhound Rock is named for the beach’s large rock formation that sits stoically offshore in the crashing waves. Usually, the rock is connected to the bea ...
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At Moss Landing, Highway 1 crosses over Elkhorn Slough, one of the largest estuaries in California. Estuaries are places where the sea meets freshwater. T ...
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Santa Cruz was not always the open-minded, progressive community that it is today. In the mid 1800s, the Northern California beach town was known as the n ...
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For decades, tens of thousands of West Coast monarch butterflies (Danus plixippus) have overwintered at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, Califor ...
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Over 150 years ago, the coastline at Año Nuevo State Park, between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, was home to a bustling lumber industry. Even ...
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Greyhound Rock lies right next to one of the major faults within the San Gregorio Fault Zone. This fact might be no big surprise in earthquake-prone Cali ...
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Row crops were introduced to the areas around Elkhorn Slough in the late 1800s. The majority of these crops were strawberries because the slough’s perimet ...
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What habitat is deeper than the Grand Canyon, requires a submarine to properly explore, and is home to bioluminescent invertebrates? None other than the M ...
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In the early 1900s, Natural Bridges was briefly at risk of becoming the site of a grand hotel in line with the vision of Fred W. Swanton. He was fortunate ...
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South of San Francisco, about 20 miles north of Santa Cruz along Highway 1, lies a beach hidden behind sand dunes covered in an undulating meadow of nativ ...
