California Photo Scout

Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz, CA

The Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz compresses numerous coastal attractions into a small, protected area. Here you can visit one of California’s Monarch Butterfly Sanctuaries, watch migrating whales, spot a sea otter, discover amphibian life in the tide pools, view wildflowers or just take in the spectacular cliffs of the California coastline.

Natural Bridges State Beach is easy to photograph and a pleasure to explore. The visitor center offers a free map and valuable information about the park. The beach is easily accessible and the coastal climate is pleasant, even on hot days. The park is also a Mecca for beach lovers. It bustles with beachgoers and BBQ parties on warm days. Bring your bathing suit if you are up for a little refreshment.

How to get there

Natural Bridges SB is located in Santa Cruz, close to scenic Highway 1. Turn south onto Western Drive at the intersection of Coat Road (Highway 101) and Western Drive. Then immediately turn right and then left onto Natural Bridges Drive. Follow the road until you see the closed gate of Natural Bridges State Beach. Turn left on Delaware Avenue and right again on Swanton Boulevard. The entrance into the park will be on your right at the end of the road.

GPS position

• N36 56.992 W122 3.470

How to photograph Santa Cruz Natural Bridges State Beach

Butterflies

The park is home to about 100,000 monarch butterflies each winter. The butterflies start to arrive in late October and stay until February. Walk along the planks of the Monarch Boardwalk for a view of the amazing clusters of butterflies living in the eucalyptus grove above.

You need a long lens to photograph the butterflies. The photograph above has some distracting blue highlights that were difficult to eliminate. If you can, look for flocks of butterflies with a dark background.

The light below the treetop is not ideal. You may need a tripod or an image stabilized camera / lens. Do not expose longer than 1/125s. The flapping of the butterflies’ wings will otherwise create motion-blur.

During the spring, I highly recommend the Moore Creek Trail and Monarch Trail, which lead through the forest, marsh, and a meadow. The trails are popular with bird watchers for their exceptional variety of birds you can spot here. The resource section below contains a link with more information on the subject.

Natural Bridges SB, Beach and Arch

Two of the three natural bridges responsible for the parks name have collapsed. The only bridge left forms a natural arch near the shore. The arch is a nice backdrop for a tranquil beach scene. The difficulty will be to frame a shot that does not include hundreds of people. Owing to its beauty and sheltered location, the beach is one of the most crowded beaches of the Monterey Bay. After a few moments of waiting, I got lucky and the scene cleared. It got even better when a surfer waded through my picture. When you drive along West Cliff Drive, you will notice that Santa Cruz is world famous for its exceptional surf. On a good day, hundreds of people ride the waves off shore.

Egret fishing in the tide pools

Photographing tide pools is challenging, especially in this environment where children chase after birds and crabs, dragging the poor creatures out of their wet pools. I have seen some crabs, but the shy creatures were very aware of things above the surface and hid behind Sea Anemones.

It takes patience to photograph the crabs. Bring a tripod and use a cable remote or even wireless remote. Step back and sit down waiting for the crab to come out from its hiding place.

Photographing anything below the surface requires a circular polarizing filter. This will eliminate the glare from the picture, but it will also reduce the amount of available light. Photographing close-ups requires a small aperture too, reducing the available light even more. This means you need to adjust your ISO speed accordingly, even when you use a tripod. The wind and the water produce movement that would cause blur otherwise.

A few white egrets showed up, hunting little fish in the tide pools. I got good results using a long lens and underexposing the shots by about one stop, to preserve detail in the feathers of the birds.

Best Time of the Day and Best Season

If you want to see the butterflies, you need to come during the winter months. Spring offers warmer temperatures, wildflowers, and lower tides more suitable for tide pool photography. Come early if you want to avoid the crowds.

Time required

The small park is very diverse. Despite its size, you can easily spend an entire afternoon photographing the park.

Equipment

• Macro Lens
• Normal Lens
• Telephoto Lens
• Tripod and Cable release
• CP Filter
• Binoculars

Fees

The “parking fee” in the park is $10, which is odd, since you can usually find free parking somewhere on Swanton Boulevard or Delaware Avenue. There is also a free 20 minute overlook parking near the entrance booth. This is where I took the first picture of this article.

Difficulty Photographing

The beautiful park is a favorite retreat for Bay Area residents. As a result, it is always crowded on the weekends, making photography very difficult. You need to be patient. Unfortunately, I have also seen people maltreat the creatures that inhabit the tide pools.

Close Locations

• Cliff Drive and Lighthouse
• Santa Cruz Wharf and Boardwalk
• Capitola
• Moss Landing Sea Otters
• US-35 Skyline Boulevard
• San Juan Bautista Mission and city
• Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf
• Pacific Grove
• Big Basin Redwoods State Park
• Ano Nuevo State Park
• Pigeon Point Lighthouse
• Filoli
• Winchester Mystery House

Useful Resources

Official Park Website

Tide Prediction for Santa Cruz

Bird watcher’s guide for the park

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