Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History (SCMNH), located above Seabright Beach, highlights the region’s diverse plant, animal and human communities from the shoreline of Monterey Bay to the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Stop by to interact with nature in the touch pool with live and local inter-tidal plants and animals, view the large mural depicting everyday life in an Ohlone Village, get up close and personal with many other animals representing the ecosystem and native animal life of the Santa Cruz region, and play on the life-size grey whale statue out front. To learn about the history of surfing in Santa Cruz, visit the Museum's satellite location, the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum located in the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse in Lighthouse Field State Beach.