This self-guided tour of several trees in Santa Cruz’s urban forest was created in 2016 by UCSC Environmental Studies student Laurel Wee. Trees make urban spaces more inviting, cool, and pleasant, but they are often overlooked and under-appreciated. Trees have stories too, and the goal of this tour is to give some of Santa Cruz’s urban trees their due.
The tour has seven stops that form a loop around the downtown and west side of Santa Cruz. Each includes small historical anecdotes, information about characteristics of the tree, and additional fun facts. The tour starts at Neary Lagoon Park and takes about two hours. We suggest you use the public parking at the top of Neary Lagoon Park at 110 California Street (next to the intersection of California Street and Bay Street). The stops can be toured in any order, but we give walking directions in the order shown in the interactive table.
We thank Randall Morgan and Leslie Keedy for helping us extensively with this project.
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Today’s City Hall at 809 Center Street was built in 1937-38 in the Monterey Colonial style, a new style at the time. The enclosed Spanish Gardens are part ...
