Bonny Doon (Santa Cruz Mtns)
Santa Cruz · near Santa Cruz · SF Bay Area
Road Cycling
At a glance
- Distance
- medium
- Best season
- Year-round; cool & shaded; damp in winter
What is here
- Scenery
- forest
- Amenities
- Towering redwood forest · Quiet, winding backroads · Bonny Doon vineyards · Tour of California history
- Best for
- A beautiful redwood climb above the coast
- Features
- Redwood climbs above Santa Cruz · Quiet winding backroads · Tour of California stage history · Forest-and-vineyard scenery
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Steep pitches (Pine Flat's upper wall) · Narrow one-lane roads — watch for cars · Damp, leafy surface in winter · Redwood shade — cool; carry layers
- Beginner friendly
- No
Road Cycling detail
- Ride types
- climb
- Road
- quiet
- Climbing
- 4
- Ride notes
- A gorgeous redwood climb in the hills above Santa Cruz — quiet, winding roads like Pine Flat and Bonny Doon climb through towering redwoods and vineyards, a beautiful area made famous by a brutal Tour of California stage
- Stats note
- Winding redwood climbs (Pine Flat's steep upper wall); Tour of California pedigree
- Seasonal
- No
- Intl tip
- Some of the most beautiful forest climbing in California — the Bonny Doon area in the redwood hills above Santa Cruz, where quiet winding roads (Pine Flat, Bonny Doon) climb through towering redwoods, ferny canyons, and hillside vineyards, cool and dappled even in summer. Racing fame came when the Tour of California climbed the brutal wall of Pine Flat Rd. Narrow one-lane roads, damp and leafy in winter, shaded and cool: watch for cars, carry a layer, descend with control. Easily linked with the Santa Cruz coast.
The guide
The Bonny Doon area, in the redwood-cloaked hills above Santa Cruz, offers some of the most beautiful forest climbing in Califo…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Bonny Doon (Santa Cruz Mtns) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.1, -122.13