DeLaveaga Park

• Picnic Areas - reservable and non-reservable
• Ballfields - reservable and non-reservable
• Playground equipment
• DeLaveaga Golf Course
• Restroom (currently closed for repair), portable restrooms, drinking fountain
• Archery Range: is open, please see the restrictions below
• Bocce Ball Courts
• DeLaveaga Disc Golf Course - Download the Disc Golf Annual Parking Pass Applicationform(PDF, 112KB) to apply for an annual $40 pass for the Disc Golf Course
• Parking lot. Open with restrictions, please visit the Disc Golf Course website for details.

The Santa Cruz archery range is located in DeLaveaga Park and is accessed via the one-way road off Brookwood Drive. The range parking lot is located at the bottom of the drive. The archery range is up the hill past the building on the right and consists of three separate archery ranges:

• Indoor range,
• Outdoor target range,
• Outdoor course, which consists of two 14-target sides.

The indoor range is only open to the public for specific events hosted by the Santa Cruz Archers. See the information cabinet on the side of the building for upcoming events. Both outdoor ranges are open to the public to shoot; however, you need to bring your own equipment because there is no equipment rental at the archery range. A three dollar ($3) donation per shooter is suggested and can be deposited in the collection box next to the main doors on the indoor range. All money collected is used by the Santa Cruz Archers to purchase equipment and supplies needed to maintain the outdoor archery ranges.

The archery range is open daily from sunup to sundown if you want to access the range on foot or bicycle from the road; however, if you wish to drive into the range the gates are only open from noon until 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. If you decide to drive in to the range and stay late, after 4pm, you can get locked in. If you get locked in you will not be able to get out until the next time the gates are open. Please! Only access the archery range by going down the road to the archery range parking lot and through the parking lot, up to the start of the range. Please do not access the archery range by cutting across the golf course and dropping onto the outdoor course. Accessing the range this way can get you hit by a golf ball, or can get you shot by an archer who cannot see you in their shooting lanes until it is too late to stop their shot.

The general rules for the archery range are posted on a rules information board before the outdoor range. However, some of the rules need to be repeated: no drinking allowed, no crossbows allowed, and no broadhead arrows allowed. The no alcohol is a City Park rule, plus you should not drink and shoot archery. The crossbow bolts and broadheads destroy the straw and synthetic bales used to stop arrows which allows arrows to pass through the damaged bales.

The Santa Cruz archery range is maintained by the Santa Cruz Archers, a 501 C4 non-profit group. For more information about the club or for information on how to join the club see their website, SantaCruzArchers.com.

Trails are open to hikers and bicyclists. Please stay on designated trails. Here's the DeLaveaga Trail Map(PDF, 324KB)! See trail entrances:

• Lower park facility (near restrooms) - On-site parking available
• Branciforte Drive (just north of Goss Avenue) - Limited parking in unimproved parking lot
• Park Way - Limited residential street parking
• Brookwood Drive - Limited residential street parking

José Vincente DeLaveaga was a successful businessman and financier from San Francisco. Born in Mexico in 1844, DeLaveaga moved with his family to San Francisco in 1868. In 1887 he bought his first piece of land in Santa Cruz and continued acquiring more parcels for the next several years. The land which is now DeLaveaga Park was a vacation spot, or hacienda, for the DeLaveagas.

Horses were a central part of hacienda culture, so the land was criss-crossed with bridal trails leading to La Corona, the highest peak of the estate. The picturesque location also included many interesting plants imported from Spain and Mexico and even a zoo with deer, fox, bears and buffalo.

When he died in 1894, José DeLaveaga left more than three quarters of his nearly one million dollar estate to a variety of charities ranging from orphanages to the SPCA to Golden Gate Park. In addition to his 565 acres in Santa Cruz county he left 50 acres to a proposed asylum for the hearing, speech and vision impaired and the remainder to the City and County of Santa Cruz for a public park. Unfortunately, a state law prohibited leaving more than one third of the total value of an estate to charity if there were surviving heirs, and though he was unmarried he did have next of kin including a brother, two sisters and nieces and nephews. The will was contested and a San Francisco judge entered a ruling that radically modified the will, reducing many bequests, eliminating the asylum while fortunately retaining the park. The land was officially turned over to the City and County in 1900.

Over the years, the park has provided space for many activities--an archery range, a National Guard Armory, a Boy Scout camp, the SPCA animal shelter, a stage for outdoor entertainment, trails for hiking and picnic grounds for sunny afternoons. Today, though the Boy Scout camp, the animal shelter and the zoo are long gone, DeLaveaga Park remains a park full of natural beauty and fine facilities for public use.

DeLaveaga's dream for his hacienda is a reality: a place for the public to enjoy for years to come.