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Walking the Cliffs in Santa Cruz
Feb. 19th, 2022 11:18 amLast Sunday we drove down to Santa Cruz in the morning. We parked along West Cliff Drive, as the picture in my blog from nearly a week ago shows. We didn't just park to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Ocean crashing against the cliffs... though that certainly would have been an option! At least 25% of the cars parked there were people just relaxing in their cars enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells (fresh air!) of the ocean. Alas most of them were borderline homeless hippies. 😅 We got out of our car, without smoking weed, and went for a walk.
West Cliff Drive is our usual go-to spot when visiting Santa Cruz. The street winds along the oceanfront cliffs west of downtown. Ritzy houses line one side of the street; on the other is a sidewalk, and not far from that, the crumbling edge of the cliffs. There are also one or two older houses hanging on on the seaward side of the road. The fun is walking along the sidewalk, with its multi-million dollar views, and following various little use trails that descend partway down the rocks or all the way to tiny beach coves.
While the far off views are beautiful, so too are the close up views. In the pictures above you can see patches of yellow flowers in the plants growing on the edge of the cliff. They produce blooms in other colors, too, like this beautiful purple.
This hardy plant growing all over the cliffs is carpobrotus edulis, commonly known as Ice Plant (among other names). As beautiful and hardy as it is, it's also an invasive species. I wrote about it on another trip to the Central Coast six months ago. It chokes out native plants that are important food source for native animals. So I didn't feel bad about occasionally stepping on it as I took pictures and walked some of the narrow foot trails along the cliffs. 🤣
Usually when we walk West Cliff Drive we park about 1.5 miles up from the fishing pier and walk east to the pier, the boardwalk amusement park, and the city's main beaches. It's a fantastic trek of about 4 miles roundtrip. This visit, though, we decided to go the other way. 😨 But that's not bad... the other way leads to Natural Bridges State Beach!
We walked around through the park, down to the beach from the backside, then up the cliff to this overlook. From here it was a relatively easy return to our car less than a mile away.
West Cliff Drive is our usual go-to spot when visiting Santa Cruz. The street winds along the oceanfront cliffs west of downtown. Ritzy houses line one side of the street; on the other is a sidewalk, and not far from that, the crumbling edge of the cliffs. There are also one or two older houses hanging on on the seaward side of the road. The fun is walking along the sidewalk, with its multi-million dollar views, and following various little use trails that descend partway down the rocks or all the way to tiny beach coves.
While the far off views are beautiful, so too are the close up views. In the pictures above you can see patches of yellow flowers in the plants growing on the edge of the cliff. They produce blooms in other colors, too, like this beautiful purple.
This hardy plant growing all over the cliffs is carpobrotus edulis, commonly known as Ice Plant (among other names). As beautiful and hardy as it is, it's also an invasive species. I wrote about it on another trip to the Central Coast six months ago. It chokes out native plants that are important food source for native animals. So I didn't feel bad about occasionally stepping on it as I took pictures and walked some of the narrow foot trails along the cliffs. 🤣
Usually when we walk West Cliff Drive we park about 1.5 miles up from the fishing pier and walk east to the pier, the boardwalk amusement park, and the city's main beaches. It's a fantastic trek of about 4 miles roundtrip. This visit, though, we decided to go the other way. 😨 But that's not bad... the other way leads to Natural Bridges State Beach!
We walked around through the park, down to the beach from the backside, then up the cliff to this overlook. From here it was a relatively easy return to our car less than a mile away.
