Weird outdoor & roadside things to do in Santa Cruz
Looking for weird outdoor & roadside oddities in Santa Cruz? These 7 are the genuinely strange ones — Court of Mysteries (Kitchen Brothers' Yogi Temple), Land of Medicine Buddha, Sculpture IS: In the Garden (Sierra Azul Nursery) and more — each hand-vetted and sourced, not pulled from a top-ten list. Great for an unusual date, a weird afternoon, or showing a visitor the side of Santa Cruz they'd never find on their own.
-
Court of Mysteries (Kitchen Brothers' Yogi Temple)
Brothers Kenneth and Raymond Kitchen hand-laid this brick 'yogi temple' in the 1930s-40s, reportedly working…
-
Land of Medicine Buddha
A 108-acre Tibetan Buddhist retreat carved into redwood hillside at the end of a narrow winding road, where f…
-
Sculpture IS: In the Garden (Sierra Azul Nursery)
A retail plant nursery specializing in Mediterranean-climate species turns its two-acre demonstration garden…
-
Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park (Neary-Rodriguez Adobe)
The last surviving building of Mission Santa Cruz — and the only known Native Californian family housing stil…
-
Tea House Spa
A Japanese-garden-style courtyard a block off Pacific Ave has rented out private redwood hot-tub-and-sauna ro…
-
Byrne-Milliron Forest — Jeff Helmer's Hidden Trail Sculptures
For 25-plus years, caretaker Jeff Helmer stewarded this 402-acre redwood forest and quietly tucked his own fo…
-
The Mystery Spot
A 1940s-vintage "gravity hill" on a steep redwood hillside where balls roll uphill, people stand at impossibl…