Pogonip

A nice local hiking spot! It’s a fairly large park right by downtown Santa Cruz and UCSC that opens up to a hill where you can overlook most of Santa Cruz (all the way to the ocean!)
There are some sketchier, dilapidated trails (don’t take the Lower Meadow Trail, esp. at night). The Clubhouse sounds nice but is just a half broken down building now.
But the Pogonip Creek Nature Loop is very beautiful and more of an easy stroll than a strenuous hike. The Prairie Trail part of the hike is really nice! It goes through an open meadow/​prairie where you can get a good view of downtown and the ocean.
The park is also dog friendly! But please, pick up after your pup…

It’s a nice park but it’s seedy as shit. I wouldn’t go here after 7 and definitely not alone. Bunch of hobos and crackheads call this place their home. The rock garden and koi pond are pretty cool though.

Pogonip is a great area for quick day hikes (and apparently mountain biking!). The majority of it is shaded nicely by trees so it stays relatively cooler even on a warmer day.
We were surprised to find how close this is to the downtown area, making it ultra accessible and not too far of a drive like some of the other hike-​y areas we’ve been to.
Overall I really enjoyed Pogonip. The incline/​decline isn’t too intense in either direction (unless you’re on a mountain bike, then you may struggle a little bit) and the ‘paths’ are comfortable enough where you could even go for a run pretty easily. The highlight of the park is definitely how lush it is with the numerous trees and potential streams (when there’s not a drought), and the fact that doesn’t seem to be too overcrowded (unless you stumble into a Mountain Bike Trail Preview like we did).

Pogonip is the perfect place for a nice walk or a great trail run. I’ve been here several times while visiting Santa Cruz and always come here for a work out, each time trying a new trail. All the trails are great, but my favorite is the Fern Trail for its lush, green scenery. It’s a good length and make sure to go with a buddy, as it can be quite quiet and isolated. That might freak you out unless you’ve done it already. It’s incentive to run faster :).
There are always moments for beautiful pictures while on ANY of the trails. It’s so picturesque here. The old club house is especially fascinating. It reminds me of Grey Gardens. I’m so curious about what’s inside!
If you’re in Santa Cruz and need a hike, a walk, a run, whatever… You must visit the Pogonip. Beware because parking spots are limited along Golfclub Dr. Most of the time you can find a spot right by the trailhead but if not there are a few spots along the road leading up to it.
100% recommended! It’s absolutely beautiful here!

My french bulldog and I have done this hike a few times but today he was bit by a tick. Be sure to check your pets after the hike in warm/​less hairy places of their body.

Lots of open spaces and redwood trees. Pretty picturesque! Its a great break from city life. If youre walking, watch out for multi use trails because bikers can come quick down switch backs. Maps available online and the trailheads are well marked with quite a few different loops. Trails got pretty busy on a Sunday afternoon, but not super packed. Got to enjoy nature on relatively flat well groomed trails. Lots of places to enter park. Caution: no bathroom facilities!

Trail was beautiful.
Took a stroll through the forest with the girlfriend around noon on a Sunday. I will say that there are a LOT of bikers and the trail is rather tiny, so we had to stop every few 50ft or so to let them pass. However, the scenery and trees throughout the trail were incredible enough to overlook the hassle.

Pogonip makes for a great short hike, especially if you’re visiting Santa Cruz and don’t have much time. You can easily maneuver the trails and find the best combination to see all that the Santa Cruz landscape has to offer. It’s also a great place to go if you’re new to hiking, since the trails are well maintained and marked, making it super easy to navigate. Many trails allow dogs on leashes and a few allow mountain biking.
It’s also very easy to get to from campus, so it’s great for students who don’t have cars. I believe there’s a trail entrance off of Coolidge Drive near Chadwick Garden and another up past the Crown apartments.

The Pogonip trails, it was a beautiful hike with great scenery. Great place to go hiking with your girl and you could bring your dog. Love the trail, love the hiking. Had a great time great time.

What a gorgeous place to adventure! Pogonip is a beautiful jaunt through a few trails, just across the street from UCSC. I spent a few hours wandering through here with my ladylove, hugging massive trees and peeking into decrepit lime kilns. When we got tired from all the smiling, laughing, oh, and hiking, we stopped off in a big sunny field with wild flours abound, and laid down to stare at the clouds. Though I haven’t done the climbs yet, I hear that these trails lead all the way into winding paths up the campus hills, Santa Cruz mountains, eventually connecting with Big Basin (yikes, that would be quite the long adventure!). Parking can be a thing due to most of it being on campus, but I doubt it would be much of a deterrent. Now go catch that sun!

Gorgeous place too hike, or take your dog for a walk, etc. I used too jog on Pogonip almost everyday, and it was always so gorgeous and refreshing, lovely atmosphere. If you love the outdoors, you’ll love Pogonip and it’s many trails.

Loved this hike. From the street entrance we hiked up to Spring Box, doubled back to the trail leading into the meadow and the lodge, then back up and out. Took about two hours and change with a few small breaks for water and a snack.
The hike is either under redwood cover or in the open meadow, both are clearly identifiable on the map.

If you like the outdoors, trees, green moss and greenery in general, you will like hiking in Pogonip park. There are quite a few trails that are hiking only and I see plenty of people walking their dogs here. (So watch where you step on the fire roads).
It connects to the Rincon and U-​Con trail that heads up to the upper UCSC campus. While the park is not huge, you can still get a good hiking workout.
If you want to hike more, head up the the upper campus and cross over Empire Grade into Wilder Ranch state park. There are more hiking trails and a good view of the ocean down to the Monterrey area.

I usually go out of my way to track down the less popular trails. The kind where I can come back a week later and find my old foot prints, but people always talk about Pogonip, and I knew it had some cool features, so I decided to give it a whirl. Our main mission was to find the coy ponds, so we hiked around the spring trails and various offshoots. Saw an old lime kiln, a field of cairns, a natural underground creek, and a spring fed pool (a.k.a. spring box), but said pool didn’t have any coy. All of this was within about one square mile. It’s a very «feature rich» park, lots of sight seeing to do. Quite fun in that respect. Great for photographers, kids, new hikers, etc. The trails are very easy. Really almost more of a «nature walk» than a «hike».
Now for the downsides, and they were pretty big for someone that prefers a more back country experience: Number one, all the off trail use. You almost might as well throw your map in the trash (no, don’t actually do that). For every official trail, Pogonip must have 10 bushwacked trails, some that get just as much traffic as the official trails, some that have obviously been cleared of brush using tools. Some are used so much that we found our selves asking each other «is this the trail, or is that the trail?». Because of all of this off trail use, there is also a lack of undergrowth in many areas near forks in the road or sight seeing features. Number two, this is a very popular park, we went on a cold Saturday after a rain and there were still people everywhere (for a less experienced outdoorsman, that’s probably a good thing). I mean, it’s not like Yosemite busy, but it’s busy enough never to really ever feel alone. Number three, Trash. Number four, TICKS. We take our dog on all sorts of outdoor adventures and she’s never once had ticks. One short visit to Pogonip (with Frontline I might add) and she picked up close to 10 ticks, and was bitten by two. I’ll probably go back once or twice on my own just to catch a few more sights, but I don’t think I’ll be taking her. :-(
Overall great park, but it suffers from being so close to town and right next to a large university.
I’ll end this review as I do with all of my outdoorsy reviews: Remember to pack your trash and respect the landscape as well as your fellow hikers. :-)

Just had the greatest experience at Pogonip over the weekend! I kept telling my fiancé that I really wanted to go there and he was like «what the heck is Pogonip»!! I guess the name is pretty funny! But that is why I was drawn to it! We took our dogs and headed out on the trails. They are well maintained and I didn’t feel worried about getting poison oak or anything. We spent about 3 hours hiking around and it was gorgeous. Not too many other hikers on the trails that day. My dogs had so much fun and we all got a good workout. There is a nice mix of flat and steep areas. I think the trails are also well marked. We cheated a little with the GPS on our phone. I’m sure we will be back many times in the future.

USCS students are so lucky to have the Poganip right there!!! I love all the hidden finds in the forest around campus (spring box, impossible rock stacks, ruins, etc).

What’s not to love.
River crossings, train tracks, and the Redwoods.
An epic ride especially if you do the loop to Highway 1

Pogonip is the spot for nature lovers and lovers in nature. Watch out as you round corners cause you could just as easily come across a nude sunbather as a mountain lion (seriously). Easy access is from the top of Spring St off of High St. Or wander up from Harvey West. Or drop in from the East Overlook of UCSC. Just keep the bikes off the trails and the dogs on leash please. This is a walker/​jogger spot and those rules do apply to you.

One of the five entrances to the Pogonip system of trails is right around the corner from my office, so lunchtime here on a nice day the trails fill with my coworkers out getting their jog on. For a while I came here about twice a week (current winter weather = increased laziness), and even though there aren’t enough different combinations of trails to totally mix it up, I was still loving every minute in this gorgeous spot. I mean, do views of Monterey Bay and perfectly tranquil paths through redwood groves ever get old?
There are about eight miles of trails, most of the giant redwood/​shaded ferns variety, but a couple of the loops take you out to wide open fields. Spring Trail is particularly flat and wide, making it a perfect place to get off the treadmill and do some real running, while the Pogonip Nature Loop gives you all that is perfect about Santa Cruz in a neat little hike you can crank out on a lunch break.