Pillar Point Harbor

Denniston Creek is a 4.4-mile-long (7.1 km) coastal stream in western San Mateo County, California. Denniston Creek rises on the western slopes of Montara Mountain and discharges to the Pacific Ocean at Pillar Point Harbor somewhat north of El Granada Beach. The watershed of Denniston Creek is made up of relatively permeable sandy soils capable of significant recharge to its aquifers, which supply a moderate amount of potable water to the local area.

Princeton-by-the-Sea (sometimes, especially locally, called Princeton) is an unincorporated community on the coast of San Mateo County, California. The ZIP code is 94019 and the community is in area code 650.

Pillar Point Air Force Station, formerly Pillar Point Military Reservation, is a United States Armed Forces facility on 48 acres overlooking Pillar Point Harbor, California. Pillar Point is 15 miles south of the City of San Francisco in San Mateo County. The facility was built and founded on October 10, 1940, as part of the World War II harbor defenses of San Francisco, as there was concern that Japan might attack San Francisco. Large artillery, .50-caliber machine guns for anti-aircraft defense, searchlights, barracks, concrete bunkers, cyclone fences, and an electric system were installed for defensive measures. In June 1944, a short-range UHF Surface Craft Detection Radar System, model SCR-296, built by Western Electric Company was installed. The SCR-296 could detect and track seagoing surface craft.After the war, on January 17, 1946, the radar system was removed. In 1949 the Military Reservation was closed. The US Navy opened the base on September 4, 1959, as a missile tracking station in support of Naval Air Station Point Mugu's Regulus missile program and later Minuteman missiles. In the 1960s the base was transferred to the US Air Force, who took over the missile tracking station. From 1967 to 1972, the station tracked Minuteman II missiles. The current tracking units are AN/FPQ-6 and AN/MPS-36 radars systems, which are C-band radar from the Western Range (USSF) of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Pillar Point is presently used by the United States Space Force for tracking polar-orbiting space satellite and operational intercontinental ballistic missiles launched from Vandenberg, the United States Navy, and the United States Air Force Special Operations Command. Breakwaters were installed in 1961 and a second in 1982 to protect the area from erosion, with mixed results. The peninsula is 0.3 miles (483 m) wide and 0.25 miles (402 m) long, with an elevation from 80 to 180 ft (24 to 55 m). It is connected to the coast by a narrow isthmus on the northeastern side, with Pillar Point Bluff, a county park, almost perpendicular to it. In the 19th century, the land where Pillar Point Air Force Station now resides was part of Rancho Corral de Tierra. It was given to Francisco Guerrero y Palomares by Mexico before California became a US state in 1850. The area was used for farming and grassland pasture until World War II. Just north of the base was Half Moon Bay Flight Strip, an auxiliary airfield for Salinas Army Air Base training used during the war. The Half Moon Bay Flight Strip is now Eddie Andreini Sr. Airfield. There is a prehistoric artifact site, CA-SMA-151, at the station, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

El Granada is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the coastal area of northern San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 5,481 at the 2020 census. The village is named for the city of Granada, Spain.

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.

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.

Mavericks is a surfing location in northern California outside Pillar Point Harbor, just north of the town of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-by-the-Sea. After a strong winter storm in the northern Pacific Ocean, waves can routinely crest at over 25 ft (8 m) and top out at over 60 ft (18 m). Routinely, waves that break can be recorded on seismometers. The break is caused by an unusually shaped underwater rock formation. Mavericks is a winter destination for some of the world's best big wave surfers. From 1999 to 2016, an invitation-only contest called the Titans of Mavericks was held there during most winter surfing seasons, whenever the winter wave conditions there were deemed to be suitable to meet the needs of the contest.

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.

Half Moon Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of San Mateo County, California. The bay is approximately semi-circular, hence the name half moon, with sea access to the south. Coastal towns located there are Princeton-by-the-Sea, Miramar, El Granada, and the city of Half Moon Bay. The surfing location Mavericks is located on the outer edge of the peninsula which forms the bay. Miramar Beach is located along the shore of the bay opposite the peninsula. Marine species include flatfish, the commercially important English sole, rockfish, surfperch, Pacific herring, lingcod; and abundant winter species including starry flounder and top-smelt.The bay provides an example of a logarithmic spiral beach.

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.

The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society is an oceanfront non-profit music venue located at the Douglas Beach House in Half Moon Bay, California. The venue was founded in 1964 by Pete Douglas and is now run by his daughter, Barbara Douglas Riching. Pete Douglas moved to Half Moon Bay in 1957. He purchased a beer joint and ran it as the Ebb Tide Cafe. The society's name came from an informal party hosted at the Ebb Tide Cafe in 1963. While Pete and his guests danced to a Bach Brandenberg Concerti, others lit dynamite nearby on the beach. A guest suggested they call themselves the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society and they incorporated under that name soon afterwards. Today a member-supported non-profit, the Bach has hosted performances for more than fifty years, often featuring jazz musicians visiting the San Francisco Bay Area on larger tours. Musicians who have performed at the Bach include Duke Ellington, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Etta James. The Bach is listed in the DownBeat 2024 International Jazz Venue Guide as presenting "world-class jazz in an intimate setting with stunning views of the ocean."

Miramar Beach is a sandy beach in western San Mateo County, California. Miramar Beach is one of the numerous beaches on Half Moon Bay, a Pacific Ocean embayment noted for its surfing and extensive visitation. The marine terrace above the beach itself is situated approximately eight meters above mean sea level, and on this terrace is positioned the small unincorporated community of Miramar, which is a residential setting that also has several coastal visitor serving uses such as restaurant and lodging facilities. A stream named Arroyo de en Medio discharges onto Miramar Beach into the Pacific Ocean. Access to Miramar beach from State Route 1 requires a turn west on Magellan Avenue, then left on Mirada Road. A public trail lies along the blufftop spanning three miles of coastline from Miramar to the city of Half Moon Bay; this trail affords sweeping marine views and good birdwatching.