Sandwiched On The Coast Between San Francisco And Santa Cruz Is California's Uncrowded Beach Escape

Drive the legendary coast highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles — along the wave-bashed shores of central California — and you'll have plenty of stunning beaches to pick from. There are the dramatic views of Garrapata State Park, the surfer points of Malibu, and the Shangri-La of the enchanting Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where a waterfall crashes from the mountains into the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the stretch of Highway 1 that runs from San Fran to Santa Cruz has been lauded as one of the most scenic drives in NorCal. Better yet, it's home to its own underrated gem: Scott Creek Beach.

Strung along a little bend in the Cabrillo Highway roughly 17 minutes north from Santa Cruz town, Scott Creek Beach is one of the few places in the region you can go to dodge the crowds. It's just about far enough from the sprawl of the big city to stay quiet and unknown — a place for beachcombing in the company of snowy plovers, spotting seals, surfing, and just wallowing in the pure beauty of the West Coast.

One of the reasons you often find Scott Creek so empty is the fact that the Santa Cruz Mountains stand watch behind. They're covered in big patches of pristine redwood wilderness and state reserves aplenty. You'll need to go around them if you want to come in from San Francisco International Airport — the drive is a touch over an hour. The upshot is that you don't just get to experience an untamed beach, but will also have incredible creek and rainforest hikes within touching distance.

Scott Creek Beach is flanked by high walls of mudstone on both sides. As you drive up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz, it will come into view in grand style: A theater of beige rock soaring from the Pacific, dunes covered in wildflowers along the roadside, and a raging ocean lashing against the honey-colored sands. It's not for nothing that it's regularly talked about as one of the best-kept secrets of Northern California.

The setting alone is enough to wow. As one regular visitor puts it on TripAdvisor: "We ride our motorcycles up and down Highway 1. Scott Creek Beach is one of my favorite to stop at. There's parking, bathrooms, redwoods to the east and ocean to the west!" A place for both relaxation and exploration, simply kick back on the sand if you like, or walk a little to discover rock pools filled with strange creatures when the tide pulls back — along with waterfalls gushing out from the cliffs to the beach below.

Swimming generally isn't advised at Scott Creek Beach because the Pacific is full of currents here — there are undertows and big shore waves. It is possible to surf, but be wary since the main break is an ultra-punchy right-hander that requires good skill and knowledge of reefs. Access to the main beach is easy. A series of paths leads straight down from the free parking on Highway 1.

Of course, you could spend the whole day chilling out on Scott Creek Beach itself, doing nothing but watching the waves and the seabirds. But there's another temptation here: The mountains, forests, and wild shores of the surrounding region. A low-tide trail leads all the way along the beach, from the reefs in the north to the rock pools in the south. It requires some scrambling but also goes past a freshwater lagoon, offering a chance to glimpse rare snowy plovers, red-legged frogs, and pond turtles.

For a taste of Cali's coast mountains, head south and then branch off Highway 1 toward the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve. It's less than 15 minutes from Scott Creek Beach and reveals a world of dry and rocky sand hills where manzanitas mix with evergreen woods. There's a 2.6-mile loop to walk there that's a doozy for wildflower spotting in spring.

Drive on a little further — some 30 minutes from Scott Creek — and you can experience the towering California redwoods at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. In fact, there are 1,750 acres of them, as well as hikes beside babbling rivers through ancient sequoia groves deep within the Santa Cruz Mountains.