Mavericks Beach - Beach in Half Moon Bay - Pillar Point, Princeton-by-the-Sea, Calif., USA

Dog friendly beach with very interesting tide pool ecosystem to discover. On the weekend there are families with children playing with sand, people collecting clams. We used the chance of low tide and walked to the other side (Ross’ Cove). It was quite an exciting trip.

Beautiful beach to just sit and watch. Nice walk out to the base of the cliff. The sunken eye sore in the shallows that’s probably contaminating water and the trash we kept finding everywhere was a turn off. Pay lots of taxes for dirty state beaches.

This was an awesome experience. The waves looked like buildings floating by and smashing into each other. The surfers looked like little ants risking their life.

My two year old son really likes this place! When the tide recedes, the whole family happily picks up shells on the beach, and we can spend a pleasant weekend here

I didn't dress warm enough (or look at the reviews ahead of time) for the walk from the parking lot to the good part of the beach. A lot of the initial foreground seems to be muddy and under construction. Couldn't see the cliffs at all from the water's edge off the parking lot. Very calm waters with not much going on. Nice mountains in the distance with some small planes flying around.

Belle plage avec un court chemin allant du parking au rivage. Si vous êtes d'accord avec les chiens, vous en rencontrerez quelques-uns en cours de route, grâce à un petit endroit "plage" acceptant les chiens sur le sentier. Ne vous attendez pas à des vagues massives ici tout au long de l'année, elles se produisent uniquement lors d'une session de tempête entre novembre et mars ;) !

Awesome rugged California beach with a big surf feel to it. Lots of shells wash up here and there are tide pools at low tide for the kids and big kids to play in. No restrooms, only portable ones at the parking lot. Not much parking. Pretty flat hike to the beach past the harbor, it’s quite pretty. There are plenty of seals. Lots of dogs off leash also.

Beautiful beach, but watch out for broken mussel shells 🐚 and jelly fish 🐙 in the sand (both are EVERYWHERE). Practically NO ONE follows the leash law while walking the trail from Pillar Point, so anticipate lots of random dogs running up to you. 🐕🐾 Also, the parking lot to access the trail to the beach is nearly always packed full on the weekend when weather is nice. Road access beyond the entrance to the parking lot is restricted by the military base atop the hill, so if you get tired of waiting for a parking spot to open up, you'll have to make a U-turn on the road and find somewhere else to park. When we were waiting for a parking spot, a group of chatty dog-walkers were standing around gabbing with one another, blocking the entrance to the parking lot before finally pulling out, with seemingly no regard for the long line of cars waiting. 🙄😒 Other than that, the scenery is soothing. 🏖️🌅⛵ It's an enjoyable experience visiting a place with so much history. 🏄‍♀️🌊 You can hear the seals from Pillar Point Harbor barking as you walk along the trail. There are warnings posted about bacterial contamination of the stagnant water around Pillar Point (marsh) before you get out to the actual beach, so I'd be wary of playing in the water there. There are porta-potties at the entrance to the trail, but that's the only spot, so use the bathroom before you get out to the beach. Children and adults who enjoy collecting sea shells will be delighted to find mussel shells, colorful sea snail shells, sand dollars, and many others. 🦐🐚 We even found a tiny pearl! 📿 There is also a wealth of other flora and fauna to be explored in the tide pools, along the trail, and around the beach!