Monterey Bay Living Shorelines Survey
We need your feedback! Please take the Monterey Bay Living Shorelines Program (MBLSP) survey.The MBLSP seeks to establish a program that will enhance the quality of the Monterey Bay coastline and foster resilience against the impacts of climate change such as sea level rise, erosion, and coastal storms. The survey seeks to better understand public values as they relate to coastal State Parks lands from Año Nuevo Point to Garrapata Creek.
To learn more about the MBLSP, visit www.mblsp.org.
This park is part of the area that forms the northern boundary of Monterey Bay. It is one of the last open headlands in any California urban area. Surfers, tourists, and birds, including the rare black swift, are drawn to this area. Sea lions populate the offshore rocks.
Lighthouse Field is one of several state parks and beaches where monarch butterflies spend winter along California's central coast. Monarchs are unique because they migrate each winter to avoid freezing weather. The monarchs wintering here typically come from west of the Rocky Mountains. Monarchs east of the Rockies go to central Mexico for the winter.
Nearby at Lighthouse Point (also known as Point Santa Cruz) is California's first surfing museum. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is in the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse on West Cliff Drive. Overlooking internationally renowned surfing hotspot Steamer Lane, this museum has photographs, surfboards, and other interesting items tracing over 100 years of surfing history in Santa Cruz.
Among many noteworthy community events, the City of Santa Cruz hosts "Caroling Under the Stars" next to the lighthouse each Christmas, a Santa Cruz tradition which attracts hundreds of locals and visitors.
