Laguna Creek (Santa Cruz County)

Rancho Arroyo de la Laguna was a 4,418-acre (17.88 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Gil Sanchez. The grant extended along the Pacific coast south-east from Rancho San Vicente and San Vicente Creek (which runs through present day Davenport) to Laguna Creek and Rancho Refugio.

Natural Bridges State Marine Reserve (SMR) is a marine protected area located at the northern edge of Santa Cruz, California, approximately 75 miles (121 km) south of San Francisco. The SMR covers 0.58 square miles (1.5 km2). The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries. Fishing or other removal of any living marine resource is prohibited.

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.

The California Coastal National Monument is located along the entire coastline of the U.S. state of California. This monument ensures the protection of all islets, reefs and rock outcroppings along the coast of California within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of shore along the entire 840-mile (1,350 km) long coastline. Conservative estimates are for at least 20,000 such outcroppings. The monument was created by Bill Clinton via Presidential proclamation on January 11, 2000, with the authority in section two of the Antiquities Act of 1906. As of 2014, the monument has expanded to 2,272 acres (919 ha). The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the monument, has developed gateways in cooperation with other agencies along the California coast to introduce the monument to the public. These include the Trinidad, Point Arena, Fort Bragg-Mendocino, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve and Marine Conservation Area, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Although being the most-viewed national monument in California, people are usually unaware that the entire coastline is a national monument.

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.

Wilder Ranch State Park is a California State Park on the Pacific Ocean coast north of Santa Cruz, California. The park was formerly a dairy ranch, and many of the ranch buildings have been restored for use as a museum. There are no campgrounds; a day-use parking lot provides access to the museum. Dogs are prohibited on the trails, but many trails allow bikes and/or horses. The long trails and ocean views make the area a favorite of hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. Public beaches continue to the north in Coast Dairies State Park.

Rancho Refugio was a 12,147-acre (49.16 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to María Candida, Jacinta, and María de los Angeles Castro. The grant extended along the Pacific coast from the western city limit of Santa Cruz to Laguna Creek, a border shared with Rancho Arroyo de la Laguna (not far from Davenport).

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 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.

Bonny Doon is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California. It is situated northwest of the city of Santa Cruz, considered part of the southern San Francisco Bay Area or northern Monterey Bay Area. Bonny Doon's population was 2,868, as reported by the 2020 census.

The Ben Lomond Mountain AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Santa Cruz County, California, located on the western edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Jim Beauregard established the AVA in 1983, Beauregard Vineyards and Soquel Vineyards continue to be only wineries that currently produce wine bearing the Ben Lomond Mountain AVA designation. Vineyards were first planted on the mountain in the 1860s sitting at a premium spot for grape growing. The appellation ranges in altitudes as high as 2,600 feet (792 m) above sea level to 1300 feet, placing it between the fog that rolls in from the Pacific Ocean, ensuring long hours of sunlight and long growing season

The Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve is a nature preserve of 552 acres (2.23 km2) in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, United States. The reserve protects several rare and endangered plant and animal species within an area known as the Santa Cruz Sandhills, an ancient seabed containing fossilized marine animals.The land was purchased in 1989 by The Nature Conservancy which deeded the property to the state, and is now managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It is adjacent to the Laguna parcel of the San Vicente Redwoods protected area. The Santa Cruz Mountains are the only known location of the Zayante soil derived from the Santa Margarita geologic formation, that occur in three clusters in Santa Cruz County.