Santa Cruz County Shelters and Rescues

Willa and Thea. Photo courtesy Santa Cruz SPCA Thanks to a lot of community commitment, hard work, and creative connections, Santa Cruz County is a great place to be a dog—even if things aren't exactly going your way at the moment, your family needs a bit of help to stay together, or you find yourself homeless. Read more.

Chasing Surf With Your Dog in Santa Cruz County

Photo credit: lostintheredwoods (CC) Santa Cruz County’s curvy coastline is studded with some 29 miles of beaches providing lots of options for DogTrekkers. Fifteen strands are dog-friendly, and one, Mitchell’s Cove, is legally leash-free during daylight hours before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Read more.

Things to do with your dog in Santa Cruz County

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

When it comes to things to do with your dog in Santa Cruz County, there’s the obvious (beaches, wineries), and the not-so-obvious—like Byrne-Milliron Forest, a 400-acre Land Trust of Santa Cruz County property managed as a working forest and laced with dog-friendly trails (off-leash hiking for dogs with reliable recall is allowed). Read more.

Keep Santa Cruz Woofy

Dog on Santa Cruz Beach. Photo: Don DeBold (CC) The bumper stickers read “Keep Santa Cruz Weird,” but DogTrekkers visiting this diverse coastal county might prefer to just keep it tail-waggingly wonderful. And with 29 miles of beaches studding its crenelated shoreline, Santa Cruz County has plenty of room for dogs and people to spread out. Fifteen coastal beaches are dog-friendly, and one, Mitchell’s Cove, is legally leash-free before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Read more.