Santa Cruz
Click the button below to explore the recommended route for this park
Description: UC Santa Cruz contains approximately 10 miles of dirt and gravel roads in the upper campus, which is a forested ridge north of the actual university, and an additional two miles of dirt road in the lower campus where the acutal university buildings sit. The lower trails, combined with paved roads on the campus, provides a means to cross the lower campus from the city of Santa Cruz to reach the upper campus trails. UC Santa Cruz is nestled between Wilder Ranch State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and Pogonip Santa Cruz City Park, bordering each one and together forming a contiguous expanse of wonderful mountain biking running from the Pacific Ocean through miles of redwood forest. Ridden legally, UC Santa Cruz is really nothing more than a connector between the more interesting trails of Wilder Ranch and Pogonip. However, the mountains of Santa Cruz county are laced with wonderful illegal mountain bike trails and UC Santa Cruz is the epicenter for accessing them. For decades it was a paradox that these mountains contained some of the best mountain biking anywhere and all of it was illegal trespassing. The good news is advocacy groups have been successful in legalizing existing trails and opening new trails for mountain bikers. In fact some of the best newer trails actually delivers riders to UC Santa Cruz but most riders do not come to the upper campus to ride the legal dirt roads. Beyond the legal trails are many more miles of unmarked, illegal single track winding through the redwoods along the ridge above campus and dropping down the northeast side of the ridge into Henry Cowell Redwoods land and to State Route 9. The redwoods of UC Santa Cruz are open to hikers to explore, as a sort of nature preserve of the University, but are closed to bikes except on the dirt roads. The adjoining Henry Cowell Redwoods property is more restrictive since it is a part of the state park that is not open to anyone. The illegal single track trails themselves range from intermediate / more difficult (Blue Square) to extremely difficult (Double Black Diamond). All are unmarked and getting lost is easy. Officially, UC Santa Cruz and State Park officers will write a moving violation citation for hundreds of dollars when they catch an illegal rider, which does affect car insurance rates. Stories abound of officers impounding bicycles. However, neither UC Santa Cruz nor the State Park service seem to patrol the trails and any weekend there will be hundreds of riders on the illegal trails, including whole families of mountain bikers. Our recommended ride for UC Santa Cruz includes all of the legal dirt/gravel roads only.
During the Wet Season: Trails are open.
Directions: UC Santa Cruz campus is at the corner of Bay Avenue and High Street in Santa Cruz. Parking is limited on campus. We start our recommended route in a Santa Cruz neighborhood. A link to the parking location in Google Maps is here. Trails are accessible from Chinquapin Road, Heller Drive, or East Rd. on campus. Ride-in entrances (no parking) are from the Chinquapin trail where it crosses Empire Grade Road from Wilder Ranch, and from the University Connector Trail where it enters from Pogonip Santa Cruz City Park.