Cowell Ranch Beach

Cowell Ranch Beach is a little known beach just south of Half Moon Bay. The beach was purchased by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) in the 1980’s and is now part of the State Park system. Reaching the beach entails a half mile walk through a farm easement to reach the bluff and then a staircase descent to the beach. Thus, there is much less visitation compared with many of the other beaches along the San Mateo coast where parking is available right next to the beach. One interesting facet of Cowell Ranch Beach is the consistency of the sand, which is course and more like tiny rock granules – not good for sand castle building. We enjoyed the unusually warm and clear weather for January by spending the afternoon on this beach watching the waves breaking and taking in the clean ocean air. We also had some hot, fresh-baked artichoke garlic herb bread from Arcangeli Bakery in Pescadero. We found out why this bestselling bread is so famous as we devoured an entire loaf between the two of us 🙂