A Look Inside Cowell Ranch State Beach

Half Moon Bay is home to some of the state’s most frequented beaches. Natives and longtime locals love Cowell Ranch State Beach for its sandy shores, hiking paths, and, above all, because it’s a picturesque, quiet California beach. Cowell Ranch is as close to a local’s secret as real life can get, and after spending some time there, it isn’t difficult to imagine why.

Before becoming a state beach, the land started out as a ranch in the 1800s; despite changing hands, the piece of coast remains a working farm. The Peninsula Open Space Trust bought the area in 1986, in the hope of developing a preserve. Nearly a decade later, the state opened it as a protected state park, providing visitors with a peek into the California coast wildlife.

The Cowell-Purisima Trail, beginning at the state beach overlook, makes up approximately 3.6 miles (5.7 kilometers) of the entire California Coastal Trail—a 1,200-mile (1,931.2-kilometer) path that stretches through the various waterfront landscapes of the Golden State. The Cowell-Purisima Trail, which follows along farmland and the state beach’s cliffside, gives travelers just a small sample of what experiencing California’s coastline is like.

Seal Beach, at the south end, serves as a seal preserve where herds of harbor seals and their pups make their home. This area of Cowell is closed off to the public. However, seals swimming in the water or sunbathing on rocks are easy to see from the publicly accessed north end. During the early spring months, newborn seal pups occupy most of the preserve’s rocks as their mothers gather food.

The northern beach, walled-in by bluffs and hills, feels like a tucked away cove, popular for sunbathing. Typically, this region is where beach-dwellers will hang out, picnic at the nearby tables, play beach games, and dip their toes in the lapping shore. Many birds native to California spend time on the northern beach and throughout all of Cowell Ranch. The beach and surrounding trails are a bird-watching hot spot for Half Moon Bay locals.

All of the surrounding flora and fauna are protected by the California State Coastal Conservancy, in an effort to preserve all the various shorelines up and down the Golden State.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.