Aptos, California

Seacliff State Beach is a state beach park on Monterey Bay, in the town of Aptos, Santa Cruz County, California. It is located off Highway 1 on State Park Drive, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Santa Cruz. The beach is most known for the concrete ship SS Palo Alto lying in the water. North of Seacliff State Beach is New Brighton State Beach.

Aptos Creek is a southward flowing 9.5 miles (15.3 km) creek that begins on Santa Rosalia Mountain on the southwestern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Cruz County, California and enters Monterey Bay, at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California.

Seacliff is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, United States that includes Seacliff State Beach. It is identified as one of several small communities with a combined population of 24,402 forming the unincorporated town of Aptos by the local Chamber of Commerce along with: Aptos Village Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, a rural area north of State Route 1 Cabrillo Rio Del Mar, south of State Route 1, from Aptos Creek southeast to Seascape Seascape, south of State Route 1, centered on Seascape Beach ResortFor statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Seacliff as a census-designated place (CDP). The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. The 2010 United States census reported Seacliff's population was 3,267.

SS Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I. Completed too late to see war service, she was mothballed until 1929, when she was intentionally grounded off Seacliff State Beach in the Monterey Bay, becoming part of a pleasure pier entertainment complex. Palo Alto was damaged by the sea, leading her to be stripped and used only as a fishing pier. Subsequent decades have seen her be further broken by the sea, but large sections of her wreck remain somewhat intact.

Cabrillo College is a public community college in Aptos, California. It is named after the conquistador Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and opened in 1959. Cabrillo College has an enrollment of about 9,700 students per term.

Rancho Aptos was a 6,686-acre (27.06 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to Rafael Castro. The grant on the Monterey Bay was immediately downcoast of his sister, Martina Castro's Rancho Soquel, and upcoast of his father, José Joaquín Castro's Rancho San Andrés. Rancho Aptos stretched from the area just to the west of Aptos Creek to parts of Nisene Marks and Day Valley in the north, and Rio del Mar to the east, including present day Aptos.

The Los Gatos Creek runs 24 miles (39 km) in California through Santa Clara Valley Water District's Guadalupe Watershed from the Santa Cruz Mountains northward through the Santa Clara Valley until its confluence with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. The Guadalupe River then continues onward into San Francisco Bay. The creek begins in the Santa Cruz mountains near the Santa Clara/Santa Cruz County border, just south of the peak Loma Prieta. It then flows northwesterly to Lake Elsman, a reservoir owned by the San Jose Water Company, then on to Holy City and Chemeketa Park, then northward into the Lexington Reservoir. The creek then flows through the Los Gatos Canyon and through the town of Los Gatos and Vasona Reservoir, then northeasterly through Campbell and San Jose where it meets the Guadalupe River.

Rio del Mar (Spanish: Río del Mar, meaning "River of the Sea") is an unincorporated village in Santa Cruz County, California. Rio del Mar is one of several small villages that form the unincorporated community of Aptos, California. Its population was 9,128 as of the 2020 United States census.

New Brighton State Beach is a 95 acres (38 ha) beach park on Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz County, California, consisting of a beach and campgrounds. The park is located east of Santa Cruz in Capitola, on Park Avenue off of Highway 1. The park is adjacent to Seacliff State Beach, which is known for its fishing pier and sunk concrete freighter, The Palo Alto. The beach overlooks Soquel Cove and Monterey Bay.

Rancho Soquel was a 1,668-acre (6.75 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to María Martina Castro y Amador. In 1844, Martina Castro was granted by Governor José Figueroa a further 32,702-acre (132.34 km2) grant known as the Soquel Augmentation. The Rancho Soquel grant along Monterey Bay includes present-day Soquel and Capitola. Rancho Aptos of her brother Rafael Castro formed the south boundary of the grant. The much-larger Soquel Augmentation grant lay inland from both of these, and comprised mainly mountain watershed land.

Soquel (; Ohlone: Sokel) is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, located on the northern coast of Monterey Bay. The population was 9,980 at the 2020 census.

The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist was a historic chapel in Capitola, California from 1889 to 2009.