Sharing and caring about what happens in Aptos
Looking for a great way to start the new year in Santa Cruz? How about going outside and enjoying the great outdoors? Beaches, forests, and more! You owe it to yourself to check out these amazing Santa Cruz First Day Hikes for 2019. There are a couple right here in Aptos!
Do you like those nature shows on TV? Well, you’re in luck because we’re about to have an incredible show right here, live in Aptos! California King tides are coming back to Santa Cruz and Monterey before the end of this year. Get ready to hit the beach and watch this exceptional natural phenomena, and it’s something you won’t want to miss.
The so-called Kind Tides happens naturally now and again. They are the highest tides that occur when the Earth, moon and sun are aligned at their closest points. The result is the largest tidal range seen over the course of the year. The flip side is a very low tide as sea levels rise. Tidal events such as the King tides push seawater further inland.
King Tide are predicted to happen in Monterey Bay on December 22nd/23rd and on January 21st/22nd 2019. Make sure to put it on your calendar so you don’t miss it!
At the beginning of this year, my wife and I decided to take the kids to explore the tide pools exposed by the super low tide. I made a blog entry about it, you can read it here: walk at King Tide on New Year’s Day.
You can walk almost all the coast line from New Brighton Beach to Capitola Beach, even to Rio del Mar. It was a great way to start 2018!
The King Tide hike was part of America’s State Parks’ movement known as “First Day Hikes,” with more than 80 hikes and other outings planned throughout all 50 states for New Year’s Day. On New Year’s Day, two wildlife interpreters from Seacliff State Beach led a public walk from New Brighton State Beach to Capitola Beach.
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When the strip of beach between New Brighton and Capitola is accessible walkers get a unique experience in nature viewing. A number of different tide pools are revealed along the sandy, rocky route — people get a rare chance to view and document various inhabitants and species.
It is so unique. You can check out countless sea anemones and hermit crabs, or starfish. Many people were able to find them very easily. However, on our last visit we couldn’t find any starfish, alas. Some folks even saw an octopus darting between the rocks!
In addition, remnants of the natural history of Santa Cruz County’s coastline were exposed during the low tides, including many fossils — some millions of years old. One impressive sight only seen during a negative or king tide is the 5-million-year-old fossil of a whale backbone, embedded permanently in the shoreline.
This phenomenal natural show gives people a glimpse of what daily tides may look like in the future due to sea level rise, if we think about climate change.
The best places to view the king tides are in Watsonville: at Palm Beach State Park and the last mile of Watsonville Slough, as well as Elkhorn Slough.
So, make sure to check it out and feel free to post it in our instagram or Facebook page Aptos Community News!
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Platforms Beach is located between Rio del Mar Beach and Hidden Beach, and is accessed via a drive down Beach Drive from the Rio del Mar Beach Round-a-bout. There’s a state beach parking lot that requires that you either pay $10 to park or have a state park parking pass. There are some free parking spots around there, but they are limited and usually fill up before the paid spots do.
Platforms Beach is known for its long, wide and sandy beach, with gentle waves and a long shelf out into the water before there is any drop-off – it’s like you are walking on a platform out into the water. It’s a very popular place for families. There is a public restroom and a water fountain, but that’s it for the amenities.
If you’re coming from the Rio del Mar neighborhood, there’s a trail you can take from Seaview Drive down to the beach.
See also: Platforms Beach Facebook Page
Pot Belly Beach is located between Seacliff State Beach and New Brighton State Beach, on the border of Aptos and Capitola. The beach is partly privately owned (up to the high tide water mark, anyway), with a number of multi-million dollar homes built right up on the sand. As this is mostly a private beach, there are no amenities and most “users” of the beach are just passing through. However, Pot Belly Beach is also known as a good spot to learn to surf, away from the maddening crowds.
See also: New Brighton Beach Web Page
Beer Can Beach is located just to the north of the Seascape Resort, at the end of Clubhouse Drive and down Via Gaviota. It’s a popular spot to take your dog for a walk, as dogs are allowed to run off-leash there. It’s also just a great place to enjoy the beach away from the crowds you’ll find on most other beaches as you move north up the coast. This beach is totally flat, and wide open. In addition to dogs, they also allow bonfires (although camping is prohibited).
There is no parking lot for the beach, so you’ll just need to park your car in the neighborhood (before the gate) and proceed on foot down Clubhouse Drive towards the beach. When you can’t go straight anymore, hang a left and walk down past a few more houses. There’s a flight of stairs there which will take you down to the sand. It’s unclear if you are legally allowed to drink beer on Beer Can Beach, but if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it…does it make any noise? And there’s the beauty of Beer Can Beach.
See also: Beer Can Beach Facebook Page
Hidden Beach Aptos is located just south of Platforms Beach and a bit to the north of Beer Can Beach. It is used mostly be local Rio del Mar neighborhood residents because the beach does not have its own parking lot. There is some parking available at the Hidden Beach Park and playground, but other than that, you’ll need to park in the street a couple-few blocks away. It does not have a bathroom or any facilities.
If there is one image that identifies Aptos, California it would have to be that of The SS Palo Alto (the Cement Boat), the sunken concrete ship on the shore of Seacliff State Beach. A lot of people wonder how the ship got there – and it’s an interesting story.
The ship was one of many concrete vessels built for World War I. Construction was completed in 1919, but too late to enter service in the war. The ship sat docked for 10 years in Oakland, before being bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation, which had big plans for it. The ship was brought to its present site and intentionally sunk, and then retrofit as an amusement ship with swimming pool, dance hall, and restaurant. The enterprise didn’t last long, as two years later the company went bankrupt. The ship originally had a large wooden superstructure which was removed and shipped to Texas. Eventually, several powerful winter storms cracked the ship, and it became unsafe, and has been closed to the public ever since.
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The SS Palo Alto is connected to the shore via a 500 foot long wooden pier, and every day of the year you can find groups of people fishing. A range of fish can be caught here, including a variety of perch, flounder, rockfish, salmon, and striped bass.
In the State of California, anyone can fish off a pier without a license – so if you’re interested in giving fishing a try, this is one of the best spots to try it in Santa Cruz county.
Admission to the pier and boat themselves are free. However, you must pay to drive your car into the Seacliff State Beach park. Alternatively, you can park at the top of the bluff outside the park and walk down for free.
See also: Wikipedia, PierFishing.com, Sandy Lydon on the SS Palo Alto
Seacliff State Beach Park is one of the major draws to Aptos for out-of-town visitors. It is perhaps best known as the spot where “the cement boat,” aka the SS Palo Alto, lies sunken offshore. The beach can be crowded on summer days, particularly on any three-day weekend. Some of the biggest crowds, however, can be found on Thanksgiving Day, when many people come to the beach and use the extensive array of picnic tables and BBQ pits as they enjoy their Thanksgiving meals.
In addition to the picnic tables and BBQ pits, the park also features a number of restrooms and shower facilities. There is also a mile-long asphalt path along the length of the beach, which is a great way to take in the sunset and get some exercise at the same time. There is a long wooden pier leading out to the SS Palo Alto, and this is a popular spot for fishing. No permit is required for fishing off a pier in California.
The park is also very popular as a site to park your Recreational Vehicle (RV) as it boasts 26 RV sites, right along the edge of the beach, with complete and un-obstructed ocean views.
The park has a Visitor’s Center which is well worth a visit. It has a wide array of information regarding the SS Palo Alto, the beach history, etc. The center is run by the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.
There is also a snack shack is open during the summer months 7 days a week – you can visit their Beach Shack web site to get hours of operation and see the menu.
See also Seacliff State Beach
New Brighton State Beach is technically located in Capitola, however it is considered by many to be in Aptos, as the beach is directly connected to Pot Belly Beach and Seacliff State Beach, and not connected directly to the beach in Capitola.
New Brighton Beach was formally known as China Beach, as during the 1870s and 1880s a community of Chinese fishermen made a home there from scrap lumber. By 1890, however, increasing anti-Chinese sentiment had forced the Chinese off teh beach. A plaque commemorating the location is located at the visitor parking lot.
This is a very popular state beach, as it offers fantastic seaside camping. They have family campsites, group campsites, hiking trails, and RV sites with hookups. They also offer restrooms and showers, and of course a large beach area. They have campfire programs on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM during the high season.
See also: New Brighton Beach Web Page
Rio del Mar Beach is perhaps the most well-known beach in Aptos, if only because it shared the name with the Rio del Mar neighborhood. Of all the beaches in Santa Cruz county, it is among the most accessible. There is a free public parking lot along the esplanade, and when that is full (as can often happen on the weekends or on the evenings for a particularly bodacious sunset), you can often park your car on one of the nearby streets…and in all cases, there’s no cliff to climb up or down, just a nice easy stroll from your car to the sand.
There is a restroom at this beach which is publicly accessible; the cleanliness of the bathroom is another matter – this is a popular beach and the restroom gets a lot of use, so if you come long after its most recent cleaning, the experience may leave a little to be desired.
The area does offer some amenities aside from the beach; there are a number of hotels/motels, a mini market, coffee shop, the Pixie deli, and of course, Cafe Rio.
The beach at Rio del Mar is long and wide, and it’s a great place for to go for a run. Visitors can also cross a bridge over Aptos Creek (that’s the Rio in Rio del Mar) and continue on to Seacliff State Beach and walk for a mile along a paved path to take in the sunset.
Tip: this is a great beach to bring your dog, as they are allowed on a leash.
See also: Rio del Mar State Beach
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