Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cafes, restaurants and a few upscale B&Bs. Visitor information is available from the Half
Moon Bay Coastside Visitors Bureau ( 650-726-8380; www.halfmoonbaychamber.org ) .
Pumpkins are a major deal around Half Moon Bay, and the pre-Halloween harvest is
celebrated in the annual Art & Pumpkin Festival ( www.pumpkinfest.miramarevents.com ) .
The mid-October event kicks off with the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off,
where the bulbous beasts can bust the scales at more than 1000lb.
Around 1 mile north of the Hwy 92 junction, Sea Horse Ranch ( 650-726-9903;
www.seahorseranch.org ) offers daily horseback rides along the beach. A two-hour ride is
$75; an early-bird special leaves at 8am and costs just $50.
SamTrans ( 800-660-4287; www.samtrans.com ) bus 294 operates from the Hillsdale
Caltrain station in San Mateo to Half Moon Bay; bus 17 connects up the coast to Moss
Beach and Pacifica and has very limited weekday service to Pescadero.
Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz
With its long coastline, mild weather and abundant fresh water, this area has always been
prime real estate. When Spanish missionaries set up shop along the California coast in the
late 1700s, it had been Ohlone Native American territory for thousands of years. Pescadero
was formally established in 1856, when it was mostly a farming and dairy settlement, al-
though its location along the stagecoach route - now called Stage Rd - transformed it into
a popular vacation destination. The Pigeon Point promontory was an active whaling sta-
tion until 1900, when Prohibition-era bootleggers favored the isolated regional beaches for
smuggling booze.
Pescadero
A foggy speck of coastside crossroads between the cities of San Francisco and Santa Cruz,
150-year-old Pescadero is a close-knit rural town of sugar-lending neighbors and commu-
nity pancake breakfasts. But on weekends the tiny downtown strains its seams with long-
distance cyclists panting for carbohydrates and day trippers dive-bombing in from the
ocean-front highway. They're all drawn to the winter vistas of emerald-green hills parched
to burlap brown in summer, the wild Pacific beaches populated by seals and pelicans, and
the food at a revered destination restaurant. With its cornucopia of tide-pool coves and
 
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