Lin Abbey

Wonderful park to take your pup. There is an off leash area and a lovely view of the river mouth and the quintessential Santa Cruz Boardwalk skyline. The play area is not huge, but the gorgeous neighborhood homes and the other polite dog owners make up for the limited space. On the weekends, we watch the beautiful and slow movements of the Tai Chi groups. Big plus are tidy public restrooms and the clean dog water bowl.

Love the dog friendly beach! However, it gets very crowded on the weekends. It is a pleasant social scene, and even though I was a newcomer, I was treated kindly. In general, Dog People , as a group, are friendly and pretty amazing, in my opinion. The only drawbacks to the beach are logistical. I have a large dog that loves fetching tennis balls. The area there is so small that it is difficult to throw a ball and not interfere with someone else's fun. Another note, the State Park employees we saw there, were wonderful. They were polite, helpful, and incredibly hard working.