Main Campus thumb|left|UCSC & Santa Cruz aerial view. The Great Meadow is the undeveloped area between city and university thumb|Tree path at UC Santa Cruz during summer, 2024 The UCSC main campus is located south of San Francisco, in the Ben Lomond Mountain ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Elevation varies from at the campus entrance to at the northern boundary, a difference of about . The southern portion of the campus primarily consists of a large, open meadow, locally known as the Great Meadow. To the north of the meadow lie most of the campus' buildings, many of them among redwood groves. The campus is bounded on the south by the city's upper-west-side neighborhoods, on the east by Harvey West Park and the Pogonip open space preserve, on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near the town of Felton, and on the west by Gray Whale Ranch, a portion of Wilder Ranch State Park. The campus is built on a portion of the Cowell Family ranch, which was purchased by the University of California in 1961. The northern half of the campus property has remained in its undeveloped, forested state apart from fire roads and hiking and bicycle trails. The heavily forested area has allowed UC Santa Cruz to operate a recreational vehicle park as a form of student housing since 1984. However in 2024 UCSC announced the closure of this park, known as the camper park, due to rising concerns about fire safety, along with mold issues and rising maintenance requests that had created an unsafe situation in the park. In 2017 the University finished building the Coastal Science Facility for the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. The facility, equipped with teaching classrooms, labs and greenhouses, is located on McAllister Way. In the same year, renovations to the campus' Quarry Amphitheater were completed.
Main Campus thumb|left|UCSC & Santa Cruz aerial view The Great Meadow is the undeveloped area between city and university thumb|Tree path at UC Santa Cruz during summer 2024 The UCSC main campus is located south of San Francisco in the Ben Lomond Mountain ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains Elevation varies from at the campus entrance to at the northern boundary a difference of about  The southern portion of the campus primarily consists of a large open meadow locally known as the Great Meadow To the north of the meadow lie most of the campus' buildings many of them among redwood groves The campus is bounded on the south by the city's upper-west-side neighborhoods on the east by Harvey West Park and the Pogonip open space preserve on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near the town of Felton and on the west by Gray Whale Ranch a portion of Wilder Ranch State Park The campus is built on a portion of the Cowell Family ranch which was purchased by the University of California in 1961 The northern half of the campus property has remained in its undeveloped forested state apart from fire roads and hiking and bicycle trails The heavily forested area has allowed UC Santa Cruz to operate a recreational vehicle park as a form of student housing since 1984 However in 2024 UCSC announced the closure of this park known as the camper park due to rising concerns about fire safety along with mold issues and rising maintenance requests that had created an unsafe situation in the park In 2017 the University finished building the Coastal Science Facility for the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department The facility equipped with teaching classrooms labs and greenhouses is located on McAllister Way In the same year renovations to the campus' Quarry Amphitheater were completed