Call the park to confirm.
Thursday - Monday 10 am - 4 pm
Closed Thanksgiving Day & Christmas, Dec. 25
Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park
What is open now?
- Parking
- Grounds
- Visitor Center - masks required
- Historic Buildings - masks required
What is currently closed?
- Tours
Recreate Responsibly
Protect yourself, family, friends and your community by following these prevention measures:
- Know Before You Go – Prior to leaving home, check the status of the park unit you want to visit to find out what restrictions and guidelines are in place. Have a back-up plan in case your destination is crowded. Stay home if you are sick
- Plan Ahead – Some restrooms will be temporarily closed to keep up with cleaning schedules. Bring soap/hand sanitizer.
- Play It Safe – Find out what precautions you should take when exploring the outdoors, especially if this is your first time visiting the State Park System. Learn more at parks.ca.gov/SafetyTips.
- Be COVID-19 Safe – State Parks continues to meet guidance from local and state public officials as COVID-19 is still present and still deadly. Effective March 1, 2022, state guidance recommends that all individuals, regardless of vaccine status, continue masking in indoor settings, such as museums and visitor centers. Universal masking remains required in specified high-risk settings. Please plan ahead as local county guidelines may differ from state guidance and visitors are urged to follow county guidelines when required. Read the latest COVID-19 guidance at COVID19.ca.gov.
- Leave No Trace – Leave areas better than how you found them by staying on designated trails and packing out all trash. Do not disturb wildlife or plants.
Phone Number
(831) 425-5849
Park Hours
Dogs Allowed?
Yes
Dogs not allowed in building.
Driving Directions to Santa Cruz Mission SHP
The historic park is in downtown Santa Cruz; take Mission Street to Mission Plaza. The adobe is located one block off the plaza on School Street.Online reservations are not available for this park.
Upcoming Park Events
No events scheduled at this moment.
Historical/Cultural Site
Picnic Areas
Env. Learning/Visitor Center
Exhibits and Programs
Guided Tours
Interpretive Exhibits
Museums
Family Programs
Geocaching
Parking
Restrooms
Drinking Water Available
Summer Events
Summers at the Santa Cruz Mission SHP feature free activities for Families and Children!
Old Fashioned Campfires: Invite friends and create community at these relaxed family friendly gatherings. Live music, hand-made tortillas, and campfire magic. Featured Bands include Robby and Friends and World Music Quartet Minus 2. Find out about our next Event!
Junior Rangers: a statewide program for 7 - 12 year olds. We offer a different program every week. Historic games, crafts, and coding are among the hands-on STEAM activities for this summer's programs. Reservations are recommended.
Summer at the Mission dates and details
Visiting the Santa Cruz Mission
The Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park sits atop Mission Hill offering a patio, gardens, and excellent views of the city. The park features the only building left of the 12th California Mission, Misión la Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz, founded by the Franciscans in 1791. Restored to its original appearance, the austere single-story adobe was once housing for the California Indian residents of the Mission. Exhibits inside tell the story of the mission through the lens of the experience of the Ohlone and Yokuts people.
Mission Exhibits
This portion of the adobe, built in the early 1800s, is the only surviving building from Mission Santa Cruz. Archeological excavations in the 1980s revealed that this had been Indigenous family housing, the only example of its kind still standing in California today. The story of the Ohlone and Yokuts Indian experience at the Santa Cruz Mission is depicted through exhibits and a wall-sized movie projection. These are featured on guided tours, and may also be viewed at leisure on self-guided tours. The seven-room building also includes information about Ohlone lifeways prior to European contact, archeological excavations and Rodriguez and Neary family histories.
Virtual Bell Exhibit
Visit our online exhibit For Whom the Bell Tolls: Changing Symbolism of California Mission Bells, 1769 to today. Through this virtual exhibit, visitors have the opportunity to:
- Investigate the history of the bells in the California Missions, and the bell markers along the El Camino Real.
- Hear from a variety of perspectives throughout time from the 18th century to the present.
- Think about the bells as symbols holding different meanings for different communities over time.
Reexamining Our Past
At Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park (SHP), we acknowledge that for California Native Americans, this is a site of great loss and trauma. The Spanish Mission system disrupted Native lifeways and traditions through the use of forced manual labor, severe punishments, and the spread of deadly disease. Despite this violence, California Native American people survived, persisted, and continue to practice their culture and traditions. It is our responsibility to share this complex and difficult history with the public in an appropriate and respectful way. The devastating legacy of the Spanish mission system is still widely felt today.
The mission was built on the traditional lands of the Uypi people, who are the ancestral relatives of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Many California Native American tribes and families, both near and far, were impacted by the mission. For some years now, park staff have consulted with the local Native community to listen to their needs and support their capacity to access cultural resources at the mission site and surrounding State Parks properties. In addition to this, interpretation at Santa Cruz Mission SHP has been updated in collaboration with the Amah Mutsun.
Still, there is more to be done. We commit to work with California Native American people to create a more welcoming place for healing and sharing of personal stories of survival and cultural resilience. These stories will help inform updated exhibits, educational content, and interpretive programming to tell a more accurate history of the mission.