Day Valley, California

Valencia Hall, in Santa Cruz County, California near Aptos, California, was built around 1884 by F.A. Hihn. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.It is a 30 by 40 feet (9.1 m × 12.2 m) structure built entirely of redwood. It was built on Valencia Creek as a meeting place and community center for a community planned to serve millhands and their families.

Aptos High School is a comprehensive secondary school in Aptos, California, USA in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. Aptos High serves the communities of Rio Del Mar, Corralitos, Seacliff, Seascape, La Selva Beach, Buena Vista and Watsonville. Historically, Aptos has been one of the largest high schools in Santa Cruz County, but recently Watsonville High School and Pajaro Valley High School have surpassed its enrollment. In addition to standard curriculum, Aptos High School offers video production, computer technology, and various other courses. Some of the music classes, such as guitar, were dropped due to cuts in the California school budget. Recently, however, music classes such as band and drumline have been reintroduced. As of 2008 Aptos High School has a new Performing Arts Center, where school plays are performed. There are also two gymnasiums, used for multiple sports, such as basketball and volleyball, and baseball. The campus included a popular disc golf course for many years, but it was shut down during the 2020 pandemic. In 2010, the Mariners hired Coach Randy Blankenship from Madera to be their new head football coach. Since then, the Mariners football team has been to the playoffs every year. They have won five consecutive league championship and three consecutive section championships. The Girls Cross Country team has won sixteen Central Coast Section titles and two CIF State Championships. The Girls Volleyball team has qualified for the section playoffs for the past 26 years in a row. The Girls Track & Field team owns the second longest dual-meet win streak in California history. Between 1996 and 2005, they won 118 consecutive dual meets.

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 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at 5:04 p.m. local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of the San Andreas Fault System and was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. With an Mw magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), the shock was responsible for 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault System had been relatively inactive since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (to the degree that it was designated a seismic gap) until two moderate foreshocks occurred in June 1988 and again in August 1989. Damage was heavy in Santa Cruz County and less so to the south in Monterey County, but effects extended well to the north into the San Francisco Bay Area, both on the San Francisco Peninsula and across the bay in Oakland. No surface faulting occurred, though many other ground failures and landslides were present, especially in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Liquefaction was also a significant issue, especially in the heavily damaged Marina District of San Francisco, but its effects were also seen in the East Bay, and near the shore of Monterey Bay, where a non-destructive tsunami was also observed.Because it happened during a national live broadcast of the 1989 World Series, the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, taking place between Bay Area teams San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, it is sometimes referred to as the "World Series earthquake", with the championship games of the year being referred to as the "Earthquake Series". Rush-hour traffic on the Bay Area freeways was lighter than normal because the game, being played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, was about to begin, and this may have prevented a larger loss of life, as several of the Bay Area's major transportation structures suffered catastrophic failures. The collapse of a section of the double-deck Nimitz Freeway in Oakland was the site of the largest number of casualties for the event, but the collapse of human-made structures and other related accidents contributed to casualties occurring in San Francisco, Los Altos, and Santa Cruz.

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.

The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park is a state park of California, United States, protecting a secondary forest in the watershed of Aptos Creek and Soquel Creek within the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is located outside Aptos, California, and contains over 40 miles (64 km) of hiking trails and fire roads through 10,223 acres (4,137 ha) of variable terrain.

Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. 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 Cabrillo Seacliff, south of State Route 1, west of Aptos Creek 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 Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley 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 population was 2,383 as of the 2020 United States census.

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.

Corralitos (Spanish for "Small pens") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. It is a rural area known for its agriculture of apples and strawberries, and its notable Corralitos Market and Sausage Co. Moreover, its location near the Pacific Ocean optimizes viticulture.The population was 2,326 at the 2010 census.

Aptos (Ohlone for "The People") is an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County, California. The town is made up of several small villages, which together form Aptos: Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, Aptos Village, Cabrillo, Seacliff, Rio del Mar, and Seascape. Together, they have a combined population of 24,402.

Rancho Los Corralitos was a 15,440-acre (62.5 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luis Antonio Argüello, with a confirmatory grant in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José Amesti. "Los Corralitos" means "the little corrals" in Spanish. The grant extended along Corralitos Creek north of Watsonville, and encompassed present-day Corralitos and Amesti.

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.