Lompico Creek

Eccles, California is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, near Felton, east of Ben Lomond. It was near where Lompico Creek flows into Zayante Creek.Located between Zayante and Felton, Eccles was a stop on the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad that ran from Santa Cruz to Oakland from 1880 to 1940. The railroad carried lumber and local produce. It was acquired by the Southern Pacific in the later 1880s, which converted it to standard gauge and added weekend excursion trains. The April 18, 1906, earthquake damaged or destroyed tracks, tunnels, and bridges. However, Southern Pacific repaired the line and operated it until March 1940, when it suspended operations. State Route 17, completed in 1940, bypassed Eccles, contributing to its decline. The area today is mostly rural and heavily wooded. The tracks survive from Olympia (just south of the site of Eccles) to Santa Cruz, and are now owned by the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway.

Zayante (Ohlone: Sayante) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. It is a residential area located on Zayante Creek. Zayante sits at an elevation of 699 feet (213 m). The 2020 United States census reported Zayante's population was 729.

Olympia is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, located north of Felton on Zayante Creek (a tributary of the San Lorenzo River). Olympia was established after the South Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railroad completed a line over the Santa Cruz Mountains from Los Gatos in 1880. Olympia remained a scheduled stop after the Southern Pacific railroad took over the line in the later 1880s, using it until the line shut down in 1940. A siding served a nearby sand and gravel quarry. In 1915, a post office was closed at Eccles and moved 1/2 mile to Olympia. The name survives in Olympia Station Road, a short dead-end road off Zayante Road (which parallels the creek) that crosses the tracks.

The maritime coast range ponderosa pine forests, also known as ponderosa sand parklands and ponderosa pine sandhills, are a rare temperate forest community consisting of open stands of a disjunct population of ponderosa pine growing on sandy soils in the Santa Cruz Mountains of north central coastal California. Limited to approximately 200 acres (81 ha), the only two known occurrences of this type are near the towns of Ben Lomond and Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz County.

Rancho Zayante was a 2,658-acre (10.76 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California. The grant, measuring one league by one-half league (2,658 acres), straddled Zayante Creek and the San Lorenzo River. It included most of the present-day communities of Felton, Mount Hermon and Olympia, along with parts of Ben Lomond, Quail Hollow and Brackney, but not Zayante.

Felton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,489 as of 2020 census and according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.6 square miles (12 km2), all of it land.

Loch Lomond is a reservoir in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lompico in Santa Cruz County, California. Part of the Santa Cruz Water Department system, it was created by building the Newell Creek Dam across Newell Creek – a tributary of the San Lorenzo River. The dam is an earth-fill barricade, measuring 190 ft (58 m) by 750 ft (230 m). It was financed by bond issuance, and completed in the Fall of 1960; impounded water first ran over the spillway in March 1963. The reservoir is 175 acres (71 ha). It is 2.5 mi (4.0 km) long, 0.25 mi (0.40 km) wide, approximately 150 ft (46 m) deep, with a 9,200 acre⋅ft (11,300,000 m3) capacity. It provides a main portion of the drinking water supply for the city of Santa Cruz, California and also supplies other nearby county areas. Boating, fishing, picnicking and hiking take place at the reservoir. No daily private boat launching is permitted. No swimming is allowed. The reservoir has a boat rental and snack shop and is open every day from March 1 to September 15, and weekends only from Labor Day to October 17. Surrounding the reservoir is the Loch Lomond Recreation Area, which is owned and operated by the City of Santa Cruz Water Department. It has hiking trails, picnic areas, and boating access.

Mount Hermon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California.

Bean Creek is a 9.1-mile-long (14.6 km) stream that rises on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and discharges to Zayante Creek. This stream traverses relatively rugged, forested lands and is the locus of an important fossil bearing formation. These fossils are embedded in the Lower Santa Margarita Formation and include Astrodapsis spatiosus;also rare species of gastropod Thais cf. lapillis, and shark teeth (e.g. Isurus hastalis). After joining Zayante Creek, the flows reach the San Lorenzo River and then the Pacific Ocean at Santa Cruz, California.

Ben Lomond is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, and also the name of the mountain to the west. The CDP includes the communities of Glen Arbor and Brackney. The population was 6,337 at the 2020 census.

Lompico (from Loma and Pico, Spanish for "Hill" and "Peak") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. Lompico sits at an elevation of 968 feet (295 m). Lompico shares the 95018 ZIP code with Felton. Lompico was founded in 1927. It is in area code 831. The 2010 United States census reported Lompico's population was 1,137.

Fall Creek is a 5.5-mile-long (8.9 km) southeastward-flowing stream originating on the eastern slopes of Ben Lomond Mountain in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Cruz County, before joining the San Lorenzo River, whose waters flow to Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Fall Creek is regarded as "the most important tributary stream for coho salmon and steelhead trout in the San Lorenzo River watershed."