West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz

In my book A Very Typical Family, which is set in Santa Cruz, CA, there is quite a lot of walking along West Cliff Drive, and especially checking out the surfers on Steamer Lane.

I’ve been walking along West Cliff Drive my whole life, including when I was little enough to be in a stroller for part of the way. My parents owned a house within walking distance of West Cliff. It’s great for walking, running, biking, or cruising in your car with all the windows down. The shaggy, Suessian coastal cypress trees that line the edges are iconic.

Well, it was. In late 2022, a storm collapsed a good chunk of the street. But you can still walk a lot of it. In February 2023, the New York Times even covered it as an erosion-mitigation story, which is very much continues to be. (Here’s a link, no paywall: Santa Cruz’s Waterfront Promenade Reaches an Inflection Point
After winter storms toppled bits of West Cliff Drive into the ocean, the seaside town grapples with how to fight erosion.)

West Cliff Drive is a three-mile stretch of spectacular winding road along the bluffs, with blue sea on one side and cool houses on the other. It can be crowded, but it’s an excellent walk from Natural Bridges State Beach all the way to the lighthouse or Steamer Lane. There isn’t much to eat along the way, so pack a picnic and have it on one of the benches on the cliffs or down on one of the many beaches.

Here’s what to see:

Steamer Lane: The iconic surf spot just south of the lighthouse and also one of the places Natalie goes looking for Jake.

Lighthouse Point: Lighthouse Point overlooks Steamer Lane. People watch here along the guardrail or check out the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum inside the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse (Mark Abbott died in the surf; when I was a kid I was convinced his body was inside the lighthouse, mummified and waiting, and I was very much NOT interested in going inside as a result). The Surfing Museum teaches you how surfing was brought to Santa Cruz by Hawaiian royalty, making Santa Cruz the mainland birthplace of California’s official sport. 

Its Beach: The small beach at the foot of the lighthouse. Spectacular rock arches here. Natalie also used to visit Its Beach in her high school days.

The Blow Hole: This jet of seawater spraying up is located between Auburn and Chico Streets. It’s what’s left of a contraption called a wave motor, no longer in use, but the hole still shoots up water to make waves.

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