Pescadero State Beach
One of our favorite places for a quick “ocean fix” is Pescadero State Beach in San Mateo County. (Please disregard what they told you in Terminator 2. There is no state mental health facility in the nearby town of Pescadero.) Pescadero (the Spanish word for “fisherman”) State Beach is 14.5 miles south of Half Moon Bay (another wonderful place!) on Highway 1.
Pescadero State Beach has a mile-long beach, a nature preserve (The Pescadero Marsh Nature Preserve), and a hiking trail. No dogs and no beach fires are allowed. The Reserve harbors blue heron, deer, fox, kite, raccoon, and skunk. Great aerial photographs of the area are in the California Coastal Records Project, which I blogged about earlier.
There is great changeability in weather conditions (as with a lot of coastal California, wear “layers”), and beach area that can be explored (because of tides). At low tide, you can actually walk out to this rock (I once took a GPS reading of -6 feet [6 feet below sea level] about halfway to the rock. At low tide and calm seas, the tide pools are fascinating. Please be careful when seas are rough.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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