Perfect place for marathon training run, or regular jogging, walking, lots of family biking groups here, huge dog parks facilities. Breathy fresh air, combined with sound of waves, great place for getaways. And a popular oyster bar few minutes drive away to grab a bite.

Nice to see peeps enjoying the cool fresh morning air; camping, walking, cycling; the sound of the ocean, blue sky, waves crashing on the shore behind the dunes. priceless. 730am best time.

Beautiful bluffs to walk on, easy parking, we were able to find a easy way down to the beach even with my partner having an ankle injury. It was a beautiful Saturday sunset evening and there werent many people around. We had a really nice time and well be back for sure.

VERY NICE PLACE. WELL KEPT. PROPERTY MGR SHE GREAT. PPL ARE VERY WELCOME ING

Beautiful trail along the ocean. Little known gem. Filled with eroding canyons, interpretive signs, birds, and benches galore, this paved trail is special and peaceful in its own right.

Really cool and fun place for friends.

Great place to swimming very enjoyable.

It’s a nice place to walk on the many trails here and get to the beach. Lots of flowers, succulents, and plants at this time of year, too. It’s peaceful to be here and escape from the city a little bit.

I like this place, there is some beautiful scenery, good places for photos, to slowly ride on a bike. Observe nature, birds or just walk. You dont get to this place right away, so you have to park tour car on a parking nearby beach. This is part of coastal trail that goes for few miles from North to South.

Lovely amble along dirt trails that run alongside bluffs overlooking the ocean. Place is teeming with happy dogs, leash laws notwithstanding.

I love this beach. Its soft, sandy beach and a wonderful place to watch waves, a sunset and play in the sand. We often see seals. You have a semi-steep unstable trail hill to walk to get to it and its a small paid lot.

Never an overcrowded beach, dog friendly, vast, pristine

Fun to stroll along. Must like dogs on this beach because they can run free here. Most dog owners are very respectful but you get a few a-holes who dont pick up after their animal. Ive yet to run I to someone letting a pitbull run wild and hope I never see that.

A bit hard to get to. Trails were ok. Sunset was nice tho.

One of the best areas for going for an easy hike to the beach in the Bay Area. Very rarely crowded, most likely because you have to walk about 10-15 mins and then descend a ravine to get to the beach. However the small effort is definitely worth it. Great place to spend the morning or afternoon. Parking is relatively easy by the baseball field, but can get very busy early Saturday mornings if there are games going on. Coming a bit later usually alleviates this.

Best Sunset ever!

Nice place to enjoy the nature

Beautiful place to hike check out raptors and see native plants with beautiful views of the Ocean.

Great coastal trail with very nice views. good for hiking or biking.

So peaceful. Never crowded. Many bunnies, white tailed kites, hawks, and wildflowers. AMAZING sunsets.

This is Poplar Beach. They have recently hired people to come in and clean the place daily. The city is requiring the horse stable to clean up after the horses daily. Its a very beautiful beach with plenty of space. Dogs are allowed on leash.

Had a great sunset walk on the beach, an uncrowded, easy going, quite nice, peaceful stroll along the edges of the water...

Amazing retreat for the soul ️, they have tied fence due to landscaping and lot of caution boards with advice... You can bike, run, lot of trails to walk and scenic

Beautiful day and hike.....our dog LOVED it as much as us!!!

Great place to hike or bike near the ocean.

Beautiful multi-level tide pools

The area has solitude, beauty and views!

Beautiful spot... Super clean!

Nice place

Nice walking, hiking and running trails.

Fun to walk to the edge of the cliffs!

This place is beautiful. We loved the trails and taking in all the nature.

Just a wonderful place to be

We spent Mothers Day here, one of my wifes favorite place.

Beautiful trails

Beautiful area for walking and birding along the ocean.

Amazing, uncrowded space. Other beaches can be quite crowded in the area, ample parking here with great views and walking paths

Great trails along the Crest - dont even realize you are on a bluff till you get to the edge. Cool an a bit foggy when it was too hot just a few miles inland.

This is a very large open space. Good place to run your dog.

Dog park and baseball field have free parking and beach access

Beautiful nature trail along the Pacific coast. Easily accessible and not too hill-y. PLEASE PICK UP YOUR TRASH!

Great place to walk the beach and run the dogs. This is a dog beach so if you dont like dogs this place is not for you.

Semi-isolated nice to spend a picnic. Small hike required to get to the beach.

We saw dolphins jumping near a large group of birds fishing. It was fantastic.

Peaceful and relaxing

I like it a lot because it was pretty cool how you had to clime rocks but you could use the entres... But ya i like

Its tiny but has a well maintained trail, making it stroller-friendly. When combined with the Half Moon Bay coastal trail to the north it makes up for a decent walk.

Awesome spot

Great walking trail and not crowded

My favorite walk in HMB. Miles of trails on the cliffs and the beach.

Pacific ocean is mad cold. For real!

Great place for hiking with dogs off leash

Great place for a Bluff walk.

Awesome place to go for a hike. You can either choose to walk along the endless beach or hike the trails that run along the cliffs edge which is roughly about 50+ feet above the coastline. Regardless what you choose the views are both breathtaking and extremely peaceful. I would highly recommend to anyone unsure whether or not to visit. Enjoy!!

I love coming here for some beach time. Ive been here on a Friday and a Saturday. A bit of advice, avoid coming on a weekend if possible. Parking was hard to find and downtown halfmoon Bay and the surrounding restaurants get VERY busy. If you want a clean beach, skip Santa Cruz and come here.

Amazing track

At Wavecrest, today I saw two white-tailed kites arguing with a large red tail hawk over hunting territory. The kites were much more agile than the hawk but nothing was resolved while I was there. What a wonderful place!

Great walkways, amazing views, great beaches, and lousy parking. The selling is right next to the Ritz Carlton and their surroundings golf course. It is hard to get to, but well worth the walk. The parking is only open during the day, and you need to tell the guard you are going to the beach.

Beautiful beach. Went on Labor day so it was of course a bit crowded.However, even consider the crowd, there were tons of space on the beach as it was fairly large.For the four stars, this is expected, but no shops or food, and only porta potties are available. There is only enough parking for a limited amount of vehicles (30 as a wild guess), otherwise youre going to walk a decent amount (nothing bad).

Wow, what a gem! May it always remain public! Several hiking trails through the bluffs to the ocean. Dogs on leash only. This is a raptor and water bird refuge area.

Coastal trees and shrub, birds.

One of the most wonderful views of Pillar point and the bluffs

Minimally maintained trails with excellent ocean views after reaching the cliffs. Trails are very muddy/wet after major rains.

Beautiful walk...

Meditation and contemplation.

Its beautiful, but theres a golf course at one end that has nasty lawn runoff. Its probably why the tide pools seem so unhealthy. Dumb rich people. We need to get rid of them

Scary cliffs, awesome ocean views, the sound of the ocean, and a beautiful tunnel of trees to walk through.

Wonderful

Awesome place for ahike.

Great. Sorry...I kind of only write these so Google wont ask me everytime I come here.

Great biking!!!

Excellent area for biking and hiking. Some trails are in poor conditions because of storm damage. Cliffs are unstable in some places - be careful.

I stumbled upon the Wavecrest Open Space as I was riding my road bicycle along the paved bike trail in Half Moon Bay. As my tires are very narrow I was hesitant to try it but I was lured by the thought of preserved open space. I didnt know how far I would go but it was so much fun that I rode all the way through. I saw very few people and even fewer cyclists. The views were spectacular and the solitude much needed. I rode through fairly quickly and was able to see quite a lot of the coast in 30-45 minutes. Thank you for preserving this space!

Perfect for dog walking

Amazing views and its dog friendly!

This place is gorgeous, with stunning views. It is also undeveloped, with rough trails and steep drop offs. Not a place for wheelchairs, and keep a close eye on your kids.

Love wavecrest for viewing birds of prey. It is on a migration path. Though there are birds all year around too.

Limited parking. Limited shade. Limited trails. Unlimited people.

Quiet lots of space to walk your dog...

Great place to visit

This meadow is right in front of the beach in half Moon Bay and gives refuge to a lot of birds and other animals. Its a great place which hasnt been built up yet and gives you a very nature feeling.

Lots of singletrack for mountain biking, it was a bit muddy. It had a cool section of trail in the woods that was magical. Watch out for the cliffs though!

Great for biking, hiking

A great walk and beautiful scenery. Alot of hawks looking for prey

Beautiful cliffs! Lovely views.

Wavecrest Open Space (WOS) is a 206-acre plot of land situated at the south end of HMB, that was purchased by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) in 2008. Its one of the last undeveloped properties in the area, and is a critical area for wintering raptors on the San Mateo Coast. The open grasslands and roosting sites are crucial for the survival of many raptor species in the area, including Kestrels, Harrier Hawks, Red-Tailed Hawks, Kites, and Barn Owls. Since this is a relatively new acquisition for POST the long-range uses for the area are still being determined. They did, however, sell off a 50-acre parcel in 2011 to the Coastside Land Trust, to which they created The Bird Trail. The Bird Trail is a 1/3-mile long, and runs along the north end of WOS; theres some informative signs around talking about the area, and you can also find lots of volunteers there eradicating the area of non-native plants.Access- Entering WOS is free, and there are two main points of access: Blufftop Coastal Park (North) and Wavecrest Ave (South).Parking- The parking on Wavecrest Ave is free, but Blufftop charges $2/hr, or $10 for all day. Personally, I always go to Blufftop because Ive always combined my visits to WOS with some beach time.Trails:Another important aspect of WOS is that the California Coastal Trail runs right through it, which will one day run along almost the entire Cali coast. The trail inside WOS is ±1.5-miles long, and continues to run to the north and south of the property in case you want to extend your journey.Usage- Hiking, Mountain Biking, Horseback Riding and Dogs (on a leash) are all allowed.Trails Conditions- The trails are mostly compressed granite and dirt, with a small section near Blufftop being asphalt. The dirt trails are in pretty bad shape with some serious wheel ruts, and giant holes when it gets a little too close to the cliffs edge.Difficulty- Its a really flat and easy trail that folks of all ages can enjoy--as long as you steer clear of those holes... The trails are all fully-exposed, which normally is no bueno, but--seeing as how this is HMB, and sunshine is at a premium--its no issue here.Restrooms- There are some port-o-potties in the Blufftop parking lot, but nothing at the south end.Scenery- The east edge of the park is mostly inaccessible, as its mostly coastal prairies that are needed for the wildlife. There is a nice smattering of wildflowers and native grasses throughout, but most of the area is still being rehabilitated. The west side of the park is the true crown jewel, as you meander along the coastal bluffs with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean, the beaches below and the entire HMB coastline. If the weather is clear enough you can even see Mavericks and the Pillar Point Air Force Station.Despite WOS being a work in progress, its still a pretty nice place to visit. You can definitely see the potential here, and Im sure one day it will be on everyones list of must see places. It still gets a thumbs up from yours truly because views like this always deserve a 4-star minimum. Happy Hikes!

This land is owned by private individuals that pay taxes. It is Private property. The Land Trust bullies are trying to steal the land, and will not and do not pay taxes to the local community. It is against the law to trespass. They have successfully stolen some of the property.

Awesome place!

You can see rabbits there

Great trail to ride bikes with kids. Theres a little wooded area over the bridge thats a lot of fun to explore with the whole family.

Amazing place for a long beach walk.

Beautiful, open space. Keep your head up for Fallcons! And be wary of the harsh waves, theyre a lot stronger than they look.

Interesting cypress trees and an eucalyptus grove where you can see monarch butterflies. Good for changing the scenery from the coastal one.

One of the most spectacular sections of beach and trails for hours either direction on this coast!

A nice place for a weekend walk! Big, open space. Lots of people walking their dogs here. A place for horse riding too!

Nice place to ride your mountain bike,just a lot of hikers on the weekend.

A place of tranquil and relaxation Serenity peace

A beautiful day for a lovely walk along the coast.

Great place!

Its beautiful place to watch raptors birds