Traveling to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Santa Cruz is well known for being one of the best beaches in northern California in summer. It is here that people come from all over to experience the many attractions of this historical beach community. One of the most acclaimed attractions in Santa Cruz, California is the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Many visitors have been coming here for good times, generation after generation. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is now over 100 years old.

The Boardwalk also has one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the United States. Many children have delighted to the thrill of the rickety, clackety-clack of the cars climbing several stories in the air with whirling views of the Pacific Ocean, as you plunge to the depths below. The Boardwalk is a lively place in the summer, filled with thousands of visitors a day, the happy cries of excited children eating cotton candy, riding on rides, and playing on the warm sandy beaches just down the Boardwalk steps.

While the Santa Cruz Boardwalk is crowded with visitors in summer, during the winter months, the beach attraction offers a very different kind of ambiance. Once summer is over, and the crowds disappear, the rides close down for the season's maintenance routine. During the cool, rainy, winter months, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk becomes a quiet place to walk in the shadow of the Big Dipper roller coaster with the eerie haunting of good times past.

It is during these months the only cries you are likely to hear are those of the thousands of seagulls making their way to roost in the mouth of the San Lorenzo River washing across the beach at Santa Cruz, before flowing out to sea. This is the time of year that can be most picturesque as giant storm clouds fill the skies, flocks of gulls swarm the air, and sunsets are vibrant hot reds and orange. The beach during the winter is often vacant, making it an ideal place to step off into the sand for a quiet, thoughtful place to reflect or read a good book.

After a long stroll or a quiet read at the Boardwalk, nothing finishes the day off better than a hot bowl of clam chowder on the Santa Cruz wharf (just down the street from the Boardwalk). Here you can park your car and enjoy the sounds and sights of fishing boats coming in with a haul, sea lions wintering on the pier pilings, and a hot cup of espresso or hot chocolate from Marinis on the wharf.

Santa Cruz is a popular summer destination for tourists, but for those who live locally, we know that Santa Cruz secretly holds a winter beauty that brings a deeper satisfaction in the hushed sounds of crashing waves, and echoes of summer laughter.

Source:
Visit 12-23-10