Rancho Agua Puerca y las Trancas

The Swanton Pacific Railroad Society operated an historic one-third scale, 19 in (483 mm) gauge, railroad at Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport, California, 15 miles (24 km) north of Santa Cruz, California. The one-mile (1.6 km)-long railroad lies along the Ocean Shore Railroad right-of-way that was to run from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. The scenic trip, through a valley in the coastal mountains, crosses Scott Creek on the Ed Carnegie Bridge, passes a Christmas tree farm, and ends at a wye where passengers observe railroad operations that turn the locomotive. Swanton Pacific Railroad (SPRR) equipment and facilities included: Four steam locomotives and one original passenger car from the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition's Overfair Railway in San Francisco. Reconstructed cars made of Overfair Railway parts and equipment from the 1975 Calistoga Railroad GE U25B Diesel locomotive 1:3 replica and cars built in 1963 by the Keystone Light Railway Products Company in Pennsylvania Roundhouse, turntable, car barn, machine shop, and workshop Four full-size cabooses, one of which was founder Al Smith's office at Orchard Supply Hardware California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) projects include a railroad crane, a car for passengers with disabilities, and a train station.Swanton Pacific's (SP) "Lazy Espee" brand also acknowledges the Southern Pacific Railroad, one of Al Smith's former employers.

Swanton is a small community in an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County on the Pacific coast, situated about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the town of Davenport, to the east of State Route 1 on Swanton Road. The US Geological Survey designates Swanton as a populated place located at latitude and longitude 37.06417°N 122.22639°W / 37.06417; -122.22639 with an elevation of 135 ft (41 m). The ZIP Code is 95017 and the community is inside area code 831. The community has numerous small residences and two big occupants – Big Creek Lumber Company and the Swanton Pacific Ranch campus of California Polytechnic State University. Swanton is home to Swanton Pacific Railroad, a one-third-scale small-gauge railroad that runs on 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of track through the Scott Creek valley using locomotives and cars from the San Francisco Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915.

Scott Creek, also called Scotts Creek, is a 12.2-mile-long (19.6 km) stream and surfspot in Santa Cruz County, California. It is a few miles north of Davenport and a few miles south of Waddell Creek.

Waddell Creek is the name given to both the creek and the watershed that run through Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County, California. The Waddell Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of East and West Waddell Creeks, and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Waddell Beach, just south of Año Nuevo Point.

Rancho Del Oso Nature and History Center interprets the cultural and natural history of the area of Rancho del Oso (ranch of the bear) which became part of California's Big Basin Redwoods State Park, in the 1970s. The center is located on Highway 1 16 miles north of Santa Cruz, California. Rancho del Oso has trails that traverse the park habitats. There are soggy marshes, grassy meadows, gurgling creeks, hardwood forests and pine forests. There are ancient redwood groves and cascading waterfalls. Trails vary greatly in length from one mile to 13 miles. The area is a newer section of Big Basin. It is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean at Waddell Beach, where the Waddell Creek watershed drains from the Santa Cruz Mountains into the sea. The site is also near the end of the hiking enthusiast's Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail. Only trails provide access to the Big Basin headquarters.

Theodore J. Hoover Natural Preserve, which includes Waddell Marsh, is located at the mouth of Waddell Creek, a coastal freshwater marsh that is one of the rarest habitats on the Central Coast of California. This marsh is one of the few relatively undisturbed bodies of fresh water left along the West coast. The land is 23 acres of wetland habitat. It is part of the Rancho del Oso Big Basin Redwoods State Park, located approximately 65 miles south of San Francisco. The elevation in the park ranges from sea level to over 2,000 feet. The area was named after William W. Waddell, who established the last of his four sawmills there in 1868. The sawmill ran down after his death in 1875. All the boilers were left in the area; they are now completely surrounded by second-growth redwoods. Other trees found in the park are conifers, and oaks. Within the park there are different vegetation types to be seen, such as chaparral, redwood forests, and riparian habitats.

Rancho San Vicente was a 10,803-acre (43.72 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to Blas A. Escamilla. The grant extended along the Pacific coast from Molino Creek and Rancho Agua Puerca y las Trancas south past Davenport Landing to San Vicente Creek and Rancho Arroyo de la Laguna. The grant stretched from the coast back into the Santa Cruz Mountains between the two neighboring ranchos. The former Rancho San Vicente lands contain most of today's community of Davenport.

The Santa Cruz Mudstone is a geologic formation in California. The siliceous organic mudstones of the formation were deposited in deep water and fluvial environments. The formation overlies the Santa Margarita Sandstone and is overlain by the Purisima Formation. The Santa Cruz Mudstone was formerly considered part of the Monterey Formation. The formation preserves bivalve and echinoid fossils as well as vertebrates of Parabalaenoptera baulinensis and Otodus megalodon. The formation dates back to the Late Miocene (Tortonian to Messinian) period.

San Vicente Redwoods is an emerging 8,500 acres (34 km2) mixed-use open space in Davenport, California. It is the largest privately owned parcel in Santa Cruz County, California, and one of the largest in California.Since 2011 the land has been owned and managed by the Living Landscape Initiative, a consortium of local and national conservation groups, including the Peninsula Open Space Trust, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, The Nature Conservancy, the Save the Redwoods League and the Sempervirens Fund. The $30 million purchase from Cemex was supported in part by the Packard and Moore Foundations. The new name of the park stems from the San Vicente Creek which flows through the main portion of the park. A small exclave of the parcel straddles Laguna Creek to the east.

Davenport is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. Davenport sits at an elevation of 259 feet (79 m). The 2020 United States census reported Davenport's population was 388.

San Vicente Creek (Spanish for "St. Vincent") is a 9.3-mile-long (15.0 km) northern California coastal stream which flows entirely within Santa Cruz County. It flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Coast Dairies is a state park in Santa Cruz County, California, near the city of Davenport. It is managed as part of Wilder Ranch State Park, which is south of the park. The new public lands protect a seven-mile (11 km) stretch of coastline and about 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) of prime coastal lands. The beaches, which can be challenging to access, are tied together by the California Coastal Trail, which runs along the top of the bluff. The beaches are Sharktooth, Bonny Doon, Yellow Bank, Laguna Creek, and Panther, although many of these beaches also go by other local and historic names.The coastal lands on the ocean side of Highway 1 were donated to California State Parks in 2006, but remain undeveloped. The state park land spans a five-mile (8.0 km) segment of Highway 1 north and south of Davenport. In 2014, the Bureau of Land Management bought a 5,800 acres (2,300 ha) tract of land on the inland side of the highway adjacent to the coastal parcels. Some of the land east of the highway will continue to be used for farming, but most became the Cotoni-Coast Dairies unit of California Coastal National Monument.