Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Very inexpensive $5 for adults, kids are free and adult students are $3. It was very cool we had a great time. It’s small but very informative. They had a lot of local animal taxidermy , fossils, bones , they had live animals , bee colony & sea life . But the best part was the gift shop … check out this amazing book we scored there … see photos ..

lovely museum by the water with a surprisingly comprehensive set of exhibits about the natural history of santa cruz. perfect for visitors of all ages , with interactive exhibits too!

Great museum with lots of fun activities and variety of wildlife exhibits. Our 3rd grader loved learning here. Please visit the trees around the Park out front and walk along the path it’s calm and peaceful💜

We loved it! Wasn’t planned on stopping by Love how they include Spanish translation ❤️ Very cute museum

A tiny 100-year historic natural history museum. It is a MUST visit if you have kids, won't take more than an hour since it is so TINY inside. Lots of taxidermied birds and animals of the region and some interactive fossil digs and digital microscope. Kids are FREE and adults pay $5. Stuff in the gift shop are so well curated that it is hard to walk away without buying some stuff. And the kids can play on the life-size whale and baby whale outside under the trees while the parents can relax on the seats. Very idyllic. Bonus: right in front of the museum is SeaBright Beach, which is perfect and MUCH better for families compared to the chaotic beach in front of the boardwalk.

Cute, intimate experience & the iconic whale that kids love to climb has been there for decades! This location has plenty of parking and easy for grandparents to navigate because there are inky a few steps from the parking lot! This is the perfect intimate place to bring young naturalist to learn about plants, animals of Santa Cruz. There’s a young children’s craft table and curator to assist and guide the children with projects. The seaweed kelp artist exhibit was interesting and I bought a box of gift cards as a memento of our visit here! If you have time for a picnic take the kids across the street to Seabright Beach & enjoy the afternoon.

Great little museum! Fascinating exhibits that show both modern and ancient local animals. The fossils on display are great examples of what can be found at the cliffs at New Brighton Beach.

Our family was visiting Capitola Beach on a Wednesday in June, and we had planned a visit to the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History as one of our activities for the kids. We were looking forward to exploring the exhibits and learning about the natural history of the area. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the museum, we discovered it was closed for an exhibit installation. This was incredibly disappointing, especially as we had driven specifically to the museum as part of our day's itinerary. To add to our frustration, even the outdoor areas, including their notable whale installation, were completely fenced off and inaccessible. There was truly nothing for us to see or interact with upon arrival. The most frustrating aspect of this experience was the complete lack of advance notice regarding the closure. We had checked the museum's official website prior to our visit, and there was no mention whatsoever of an upcoming closure for installation or any other reason. This oversight in communication led to a wasted trip and two very disappointed children. While I cannot comment on the quality of the museum's exhibits or the experience within its walls, I can strongly advise future visitors to double-check their plans directly with the museum, perhaps by calling ahead, even if their website indicates regular operating hours. It's crucial for institutions like the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History to keep their online presence accurate and up-to-date, especially when closures impact visitor plans. We understand that exhibit installations are necessary for museums to offer fresh and engaging content, but proper public notification is essential. We hope that in the future, the museum will improve its communication protocols to prevent other families from having a similar experience. We were genuinely looking forward to our visit and left feeling quite let down by the lack of information and the total inaccessibility of the grounds.

Forgot to review this place! We had been wanting to see this place for years and finally went. It's a mile or so from the Boardwalk. Long walk or fast drive. They'll give you a parking pass for the street. It's very small but really a neat visit. Perfect for smaller kids especially!

Excellent museum. Amazing staff. Incredible location at the beach. Outside whales to climb on. The gift shop is one of the best on the west coast. A very high class scene.

This place is so cool I'm a local person and I haven't been here in 30 years, and I absolutely love it. We went for the mastodon tooth to look at it and view it and I was pleasantly surprised with everything else.

I had a great time there's games there, huge whale, tide pool, very fun my nani will get mad if you don't go(jk) and there's a live snake go if you dare (it's in a cage)I'ma kid don't be mad!

What a great find during our touristy tour of Santa Cruz! I love to visit museums because there are always fascinating and educational kinds of stuff inside. When we got to the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, they had different stuffed wild animals on display. My little photographer child inside gleefully took photos. Since I'm no professional, I used my phone's camera. HaHa! Life-like animals looked back at me while I took pictures. It was fun reading all the information about them. My heart became happier when I got to their store. Postcards and stickers galore! Because I'm a stationery aficionado, I had to buy numerous items from their store. It made me think that I should always add to my travel destination museums. Not only do they have educational wonders to offer, but they have cute souvenirs related to the town. This place inspired me to update my travel itinerary. Visit museums and support them. It's great!

This is probably one of the smallest natural history museums ever, located pretty much directly across from seabright beach. Parking is street only. Due to the popularity of santa cruz beaches, this means in the summer parking can be a rare thing. No biggie in the off season. The outside has some native landscaping, a giant whale sculpture by the front (climb at your own risk) and a spot in back that is perfect for picnicking. Inside it's not only small, it's downright tiny. Regardless (because of?)of the size there the exhibits are well laid out, interactive for children, and informative. There is a small gift shop on site, but the real claim to fame here is the children's programs-usually via schools-and it's variety of public events, workshops, programs, lectures and whatnot. Outside of the museum itself it's possible to to learn quite a bit for example last winter they had an astronaut in for a brief lecture followed by a question and answer session. For the average adult you can cover the exhibits in about 20 minutes half of which will be spent in the gift shop. The science obsessed will take about 30 minutes, and if you're with kindergarten aged children about an hour for the hands on learning play. Whether or not that all makes sense for a five dollar entry fee is up to you, but it does make for a nice break from the beach.

I adore this place, it's fun, educational and has wonderful gifts as well. I loved playing on the grey whale statue as a kid and plan to bring my kids here in the future!

I love this little museum! If you are into local wildlife, you'll go, well, *wild* over the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Its small, you can do the whole thing in 30 minutes, but its packed full of furry, naturey awesomeness. The museum was Santa Cruz's very first, established in 1905. It is essentially divided into four parts: 1) An impressive collection of wildlife dioramas (read taxidermied critters) including a Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Fox, mice, snakes, probably a dozen different kinds of local hawks, and much more, 2) An ocean focused area about local ocean critters and whales, complete with a hands-on tide pool where you can touch the urchin, starfish, sea slug and the like, 3) some exhibits on the Santa Cruz region's geology, and 4) an Ohlone history area that is a little more static and a bit of a yawn but a great educational vehicle for kids to learn about Santa Cruz's *original* locals. There's more, too; a live honeybee colony, a giant whale, plus there's a neat gift shop full of local ecology related books, posters, gifts, etc. At only $2.50 for adults and free for under 18, you've run out of excuses not to come down to this little gem of a museum and get yer Bobcat on!

In my last review, I made a point of emphasizing how this is a wonderful learning space for children. It turns out that by "children" I also meant my own inner child. The museum was my local polling place during the elections this past November. While in line to vote, I was standing next to an activity table where you practice identification with pine cones. When I was in kindergarten, our class did this activity with apples (and even had an apple tasting). I loved it so much that I wrote an essay for a school wide contest on how science was my favorite subject and won for my grade level. Ever since then, whenever I've taken a science class that had an i.d. assignment, I've really enjoyed that lab. I had so much fun at the pine cone table! I felt like my enthusiastic 5 year old self again. I actually went back after I was done voting so I could finishing identifying all of the pine cones. A few weeks later, I brought my friend's son with me so I'd have a reason to go again.

I'm down for ANY business whose goal or mission is to "Connect People with Nature". The Admission at the Museum is FREE every First Thurs of the Month - which is perfect for us starving students ;) I loved the upcoming events at the Museum... *Earth Day Class Project Challenge: March 20- April 17: Art of Nature Exhibit *March 27: Nature Notes & Sketches Class *April 10 : Natural Science Illustration for Kids Class I hope this place remains open and flourishing!

Size doesn't always matter, and this little museum is an example of just that. It only took my friends and I about half an hour to finish seeing everything but there's a good amount of things to be seen here. From a giant whale rib to the tiny bones of a shrew, there was really nothing that didn't blow my mind even if just for a bit (or am I the only one with a fascination with really really big things and really really tiny things?) And after your visit to the museum, you can walk 2 minutes down the street to Seabright Beach and have a bonfire with your friends or take a (I want to say 5 to 10 minute) drive to the Boardwalk. P.S. First Thursday of the month is free!

OMG what a cool little treasure! I had no idea this existed! I took my daughter and we were there for almost 2 hours. Don't get me wrong, it is small. But lots of neat things to look at if taxidermy doesn't creep you out. If it does, don't go. The animals died of natural causes so don't wig out! Anyhow, it was pretty cool. Go check it out!

The musuem is cheap - $4 for adults, $2 for seniors, free for kids They provide validated parking on the street. They have excellent exhibit on Ohlone Indians. They have a good colllection of stuffed animals, shells, rocks

Not bad but only 10-15 minutes of entertainment for my three year old. Honestly the yelp reviews oversold this.

A really great little museum with rotating exhibits, a fantastic touch pool, and really knowledgeable/friendly staff. Get to know Santa Cruz on a deeper level by exploring this museum.

This place is phenomenal! It may be small but is packed full of a wealth of information about our area. It is a must to take your children to, as it is so important that they learn about all the wildlife on our planet, and what we can do to keep them in our environment. They have an incredible shell collection in this place as well. The whale sculpture out in front of the building is just too cool for little ones to climb on and take a photo op! The docents that work here are very knowledgeable, and if your child has research or a report to do this is a great resource. It is really great that this place is here and made available for all of us to learn from.

Cute little museum. Lots to do and look at for smaller kids. My teenagers enjoyed it too. Super friendly staff, too.

Located right near the beach, this cute museum is very kid friendly. They offer student and senior discounts and a variety of exhibits from a touch tank to native American articles and taxodermy to microscope fun. The staff was friendly and it would be the perfect afternoon activity for little kids. As adults, we enjoyed the photography exhibit on display which centered around marine life and rolled through the gift shop. It's much smaller than other museums of its type but very well maintained and enjoyable.

Don't expect a huge building with tons of exhibits to explore around here. It's very small, but for the price of only 2.50 it's a quaint experience. Personally, I loved looking at the Ohlone exhibit and the animals that inhabit the area. Oh, and the little petting area for starfish and other small tide pool creatures was so interesting. My family and I kept looking through the pool to find all the animals that they had on their information display. We just couldn't find the small shrimps in the pool. Definitely worth a look when you're in Santa Cruz, and it's not out of your way.

It's a good little museum, but I'd like to see some more in the way of updated exhibits. And while the current featured exhibit of conservation photos ("Endangered Neighbors") is great from an aesthetic standpoint, it doesn't seem to provide much in the way of *specific* information about the photographer(s) or the subjects.I was bummed to have missed the "Art of Nature" exhibit.

I loved this place! It is little, unpretentious, super well thought, and really interesting. You won't find the 3D screens and interactive video games that others have, which I also love, especially because this place is proof that you don't need fireworks and loud noise to have a truly rich learning experience. The animals -stuffed- are beautiful, kids can look at them from really up close, and the variety of them is perfect, because these are the typical California species that kids hear over and over from, but here they can really look a them. My 5 year old was impressed and kept running from one to another saying "mom, look how beautiful the coyotes are!" (same with the grey fox, the hummingbirds, the bob cat, the eagle, etc). He also loved looking for bones in the paleontologist box with his brush. I especially enjoyed the Ohlone area, I have been wanting to know more about their culture and there is a good space with fun activities and interesting stuff to learn. Kids can even grind acorns in real mortars, my son loved it!

This museum really fit the bill for a nice stress-free outing with my 2-yr old toddler. The museum is quite inexpensive and provide free parking permits for parking on the street. The giant whale sculpture out front caught his imagination right away, and it only got better once we were inside. This is a beautiful museum with many different local animals staged in their natural surrounding all over the museum (don't forget to look up!). The big hits with my child were all the hands-on activities including a bird exhibit with buttons to make the bird sounds, a real bee hive with bees coming and going through a tube, a touch tank with sea life, and a large "excavation site" with brushes to uncover bones. Since most exhibits are enclosed, it is very kid-friendly. Highly recommend it!

this is a great little museum to take the kids. they have little touch tanks, videos, stuffed critters and an awesome staff.

This is a very SMALL museum, yet the kids still had a good time and I don't think it was very pricey, it's right next to the water which is a plus too.

Not Worth 4 bucks a adult kids like something's not like there was a lot to see its one small circle

What an awesome little museum! I took my children, nieces, and nephew (ages 20 mth-13 yr), my mother, and my sister here, and we all had a fantastic time! I was a little worried that it wouldn't provide the diversion that I sought, but my fears were unnecessary. We spent almost 2 hours here looking at the stuffed animals, habitats, the bees, the touch pool; the older kids read to the younger and the toddler enthusiastically looked at all the animals and dug in the sand pit of the archeology exhibit. The kids then climbed all over the replica whale, and we had a nice snack with an ocean/lighthouse view. The exhibits are thoughtful, accurate, and engaging, and the museum parking for is free!