Montara, California

Montara State Beach is a beach located in the coastal region of the U.S. state of California, eight miles north of Half Moon Bay on State Route 1. It is operated by the California State Department of Parks and Recreation under the San Mateo Coast Sector Office. It is one of the cleanest beaches in the state and is known for surfing and fishing. Montara State Marine Reserve & Pillar Point State Marine Conservation Area extends offshore from Montara State Beach.

The Point Montara Light is a lighthouse in Montara, California, United States, on the southern approach to the San Francisco Bay, California approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Martini Creek is a coastal stream whose watershed lies entirely within San Mateo County, California, United States on the western exposures of the Montara mountain block, discharging to the Pacific Ocean. It flows about 2 miles (3 km) from its source on Montara Mountain to its mouth in Montara State Beach. This stream has a drainage basin composed of open space and agricultural lands. Some of the basin has moderate to steep slopes and much of the basin habitat is northern coastal scrub, and in places almost of a pygmy forest nature. There are numerous species of flora and fauna which are found in this watershed, including the rare plant Hickman's potentilla. Yellow Bush Lupine is also seen here in a low growing form The creek name became widely publicized when a highway alternative for the Devil's Slide bypass became dubbed the "Martini Creek Alignment". The highway proposal caused considerable study during the 1980s and 1990s of biology, geology, air quality and acoustics conditions within this watershed.

Moss Beach is a coastal census-designated place in San Mateo County, California, with a year 2020 census population of 3,214. Located in Moss Beach are the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a marine sanctuary; the Half Moon Bay Airport, the historic Moss Beach Distillery; and the Seal Cove Inn, a destination lodging property. Moss Beach is a cool coastal microclimate that gives one a sense of separation from the nearby metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area and assures that summer temperatures are generally mild.

San Vicente Creek (Spanish for "St. Vincent") is a 3.9-mile-long (6.3 km) coastal stream in northern California which flows entirely within San Mateo County and discharges to the Pacific Ocean. Its waters rise on the west facing slopes of the Montara Mountain, block and its mouth is at the unincorporated community of Moss Beach, within the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Historically there was a tidal marsh at its mouth, but some of this reach has been degraded by fill, especially in the construction of West Point Drive. This westernmost reach of the creek has been especially ecologically productive, and part of the reason for Fitzgerald Marine Reserve's designation on August 5, 1969, as a state reserve and was named after James V. Fitzgerald.

McNee Ranch is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains of the United States, near the unincorporated community of Montara, California in San Mateo County. The highest point in the 690-acre ranch rises to 1,898 feet above sea level. An unpaved fire road, the North Peak Access Road, accessible from the Pedro Mountain Road, provides access to the summit by hikers. The mountain has an extensive biodiversity especially on the serpentine soils of the lower slopes where such endangered species as Hickman's potentilla and San Mateo thornmint, Acanthomintha duttonii, are found. On rare occasions light snow has dusted the summit. On clear days the summit provides views of much of the San Francisco Bay Area.The ranch is part of Montara State Beach.

Moss Beach Distillery is a restaurant in Moss Beach, California, located on a cliff which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. It is officially designated as a California Point of Historical Interest. Originally established in 1927 as a speakeasy, it converted into a successful restaurant after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.

Eddie Andreini Sr. Airfield, officially Half Moon Bay Airport (IATA: HAF, ICAO: KHAF, FAA LID: HAF), is a public airport in San Mateo County, six miles (9.7 km) northwest of Half Moon Bay, California, United States. The airport is on the Pacific Coast, south of San Francisco.

Gray Whale Cove State Beach is a California State Park between Pacifica, California, and Montara, California, by Highway 1 and approximately 18 miles south of San Francisco. It features a sheltered cove surrounded by abrupt cliffs, with trails connecting to nearby Montara Mountain and McNee Ranch State Park. It is located just south of Devil's Slide. The 3.1-acre (1.3 ha) park was established in 1966.Montara State Marine Reserve & Pillar Point State Marine Conservation Area extend offshore from Montara, just south of Gray Whale Cove. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is a marine reserve in California on the Pacific Ocean, located just north of Pillar Point Harbor and Mavericks in the San Mateo County community of Moss Beach. Moss Beach is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco and 50 miles (80 km) north of Santa Cruz. The reserve is a 32-acre (0.13 km2) holding which extends from Montara light station at the north to Pillar Point on the south. The reserve consists of a three-mile stretch of beach, tidepool habitat, marsh, erosive bluffs, clifftop trail and cypress and eucalyptus forests. The property is owned by the State of California and managed by San Mateo County as a county park and nature preserve. The reserve is administratively assigned to be part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Adjacent to and possibly within the reserve is an endangered species of butterfly, the San Bruno elfin butterfly. Montara State Marine Reserve & Pillar Point State Marine Conservation Area extend offshore from Montara, just north of Pillar Point. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve lies within Montara State Marine Reserve.

Pillar Point Bluff is a 220-acre park in San Mateo County, California. It is part of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, owned by the U.S. state of California, and managed by San Mateo County as a county park and nature preserve. The park is located between Princeton-by-the-Sea and Moss Beach, just north of the Pillar Point peninsula, Pillar Point Harbor, and Half Moon Bay. The area was inhabited by coastal indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and in recent centuries, was used for livestock grazing by Spanish Missions and Mexican ranchos. Pillar Point Bluff was once part of the Rancho Corral de Tierra Mexican land grant before California became a state. Peninsula Open Space Trust first purchased the land in large parcels from 2004 to 2008 to protect it from development, selling it to the county for use as a park in 2011. Additional parcels were added in 2015. The land is now part of the 1,200-mile (1,900 km) California Coastal Trail, a network of public trails along the entire coast of California. The park offers trails for hiking, jogging, horseback riding, cycling and on-leash dog walking. The trails wind through a coastal scrub and coastal terrace prairie habitat, with scenic views of wetlands, farmlands, the Montara Mountain, Half Moon Bay, the Pacific Ocean, Mavericks surf break, and native wildlife, including seasonal views of wildflowers and gray and humpback whales. The area is also home to the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake. The Jean Lauer Trail, a dirt-packed hiking trail, is ADA accessible.

Rancho Corral de Tierra (Guerrero y Palomares) was a 7,766-acre (31.43 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day coastal western San Mateo County, northern California. The larger northern part of Rancho Corral de Tierra was given in 1839 by Governor Pro-Tem Manuel Jimeno to Francisco Guerrero y Palomares. The name means earthen corral in Spanish. Jimeno granted Tiburcio Vasquez the smaller southern Rancho Corral de Tierra (Vasquez) part. Guerrero y Palomares's northern portion extended from Martini Creek south along the Pacific coast past Montara to Arroyo de en Medio just south of El Granada, and included the present-day communities of Moss Beach, and Princeton-by-the-Sea. Most of its former land grant is now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.