Highlands County Park

When you want a park day that feels like more than a park day, Highlands County Park in Ben Lomond delivers the mountain version of that experience. Located off CA-9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains foothills, this Santa Cruz County park offers a significantly different landscape than the coastal parks — shaded by redwoods and oaks, cooler than the coast in summer, and with a scale that gives kids genuine room to explore.

The park has a comprehensive range of features for a county park: a playground for young children, athletic fields and a baseball diamond for organized or spontaneous sports, hiking trails that range from easy walks to more challenging routes, and excellent picnic grounds shaded by mature trees. The combination makes it unusually versatile for families with different age kids who want to do different things.

For families visiting Santa Cruz, the drive up CA-9 through Ben Lomond and toward Boulder Creek is itself scenic and worth doing — the highway winds through the mountains past redwood groves and small mountain communities that feel a world away from the beach town atmosphere of downtown Santa Cruz.

Picnicking here is genuinely pleasant. The shaded grounds stay cool on warm days, and the natural mountain setting adds atmosphere that flat urban parks can't match. Pack a full lunch and plan to stay — the kids will find reasons to keep exploring.

Free to access, no admission, no reservation required for general use.