A flock of gulls lifts off from the San Lorenzo River near the Riverside Avenue Bridge by downtown Santa Cruz. The San Lorenzo River, with its source near Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, runs 29.3 miles through the towns of Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond, Felton and the city of Santa Cruz before emptying into the Monterey Bay, near the river mouth adjacent to Main Beach. The name San Lorenzo derives from the Spanish language for “Saint Lawrence,” due to its reported sighting on that saint’s feast day by Spanish explorers. The native Awaswas-speaking Uypi tribe refers to the San Lorenzo River as “Aulintak,” and the waterway is considered a significant part of their cultural heritage. Archeological evidence along the river indicates that the area was inhabited for 2,000 years before it was colonized by the Spanish in the late 1700s.
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