Glossary

The words you’ll hear around Half Moon Bay — places, history, weather and local ways, explained

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Coast & Weather

Marine layer and fog: The cool, damp layer of air over the ocean that brings Half Moon Bay its foggy nights and mornings, cool summers and mild year-round weather.
Mavericks: The giant winter wave that breaks about half a mile outside Pillar Point Harbor, shaped by an unusual underwater rock ramp.
Sneaker waves: Unexpectedly large waves that run far up a beach with little warning; at Mavericks one injured at least 13 spectators in 2010.

Food & Farming

Artichokes: A signature Coastside crop: by 1916 a county history said Half Moon Bay artichokes were known from San Francisco to New York.
Brussels sprouts: A cool-weather crop that thrives in the coastal fog of San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, grown around Half Moon Bay since the early 1900s.
Dungeness crab: The sweet-fleshed crab that Pillar Point Harbor’s fishermen sell straight off their boats; California’s official state crustacean since 2024.
Dungeness crab season: The winter commercial and recreational crab season, which runs roughly from late fall into summer but is often delayed by toxic algae or whale-safety concerns.
Flower and houseplant growers: Half Moon Bay’s greenhouses grew flowers and houseplants for the nation, but the industry has shrunk since the 1990s; Bay City Flowers closed in 2019.

History & People

Chiguan Ohlone: The Ohlone people who lived along the San Mateo coast for thousands of years, including villages near Half Moon Bay and Princeton.
Jeff Clark: The Half Moon Bay surfer who first rode Mavericks in 1975, at 17, and surfed it alone for about 15 years before the world found out.
Moss Beach Distillery: A cliffside restaurant in Moss Beach that began as a Prohibition speakeasy, built in 1927 and later a favorite of writer Dashiell Hammett.
Ocean Shore Railroad: A railroad meant to connect San Francisco and Santa Cruz along the coast; it reached Half Moon Bay in 1907 and was gone by 1920 without finishing the job.
Pedro Mountain Road: The winding road over the hills between Montara and Pacifica, completed in 1914, which gave Half Moon Bay a faster route to San Francisco.
Pillar Point Air Force Station: A Space Force tracking station on top of Pillar Point, which began in 1940 as a military reservation guarding San Francisco from sea attack.
Portolà expedition: The first European land expedition into Alta California, which camped by Pilarcitos Creek on October 28, 1769 and called the plain Los Ansares, the geese.
Purissima: A 19th-century farming village south of Half Moon Bay, now a ghost town near Highway 1 and Verde Road.
Rancho Corral de Tierra: The Mexican land grant of 1839 north of Pilarcitos Creek; its name means earthen corral, and its southern part went to Tiburcio Vásquez.
Rancho Miramontes: The 4,424-acre Mexican land grant south of Pilarcitos Creek, given to Candelario Miramontes in 1841; also called Rancho San Benito.
Rum-running: The smuggling of liquor onto the Coastside’s beaches during Prohibition, 1920 to 1933, helped by fog, hidden coves and a thirsty San Francisco.
Rydal Hall: A coal ship wrecked near Pillar Point in October 1876; its anchor, recovered in 1971, is on display outside a restaurant by the harbor.
Spanishtown: The 19th-century name for the settlement that became Half Moon Bay, a mixed community of Californios, Mexicans and settlers from many countries.

Local Life & Events

Chamarita: The Portuguese Holy Ghost festival of the Coastside, run by the I.D.E.S. Society, which was founded in Half Moon Bay in 1871.
Great Pumpkin Parade: The Saturday-noon parade of the festival, with the weigh-off champion pumpkin, marching bands, classic cars and costumed children.
Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival: A free two-day October festival on Main Street, begun in 1971 to rescue a fading downtown, with 250 artists, nonprofit food booths and the Great Pumpkin Parade.
Half Moon Bay Review: The Coastside’s newspaper since 1905, now digital-only, covering the coast from Pacifica to the Santa Cruz County line.
Mavericks Water Patrol: A rescue group formed by Frank Quirarte and Jeff Clark after surfer Mark Foo died at Mavericks in 1994.
Pumpkin Capital of the World: Half Moon Bay’s self-given title, challenged in the early 1970s by Circleville, Ohio, which led to a weigh-off held by telephone.
Pumpkin weigh-off: The Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, held on Columbus Day Monday; in 2023 it crowned the heaviest winner ever, 2,749 pounds.
Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay: The clifftop resort and golf hotel, finished in 2001, that is the town’s biggest employer and is known for a bagpiper who plays at sundown.
Titans of Mavericks: The invitation-only big-wave contest held at Mavericks from 1999 to 2016, run only when winter conditions allowed.

Nature & Wildlife

Elephant seals at Año Nuevo: Año Nuevo State Park, south of Pescadero, hosts one of the largest mainland breeding colonies of northern elephant seals.
Fitzgerald Marine Reserve: A 32-acre marine reserve at Moss Beach with some of northern California’s best tide pools, named for county supervisor James V. Fitzgerald.
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: A federal marine sanctuary designated in 1992 that stretches from Rocky Point in Marin County to Cambria, covering the San Mateo coast’s offshore waters.
Pillar Point Bluff: A 220-acre county park of coastal scrub and prairie on the bluff above Mavericks, with trails, wildflowers and seasonal views of passing whales.
Tide pools: Shallow rock pools left by the retreating tide, home to anemones, sea urchins and hermit crabs; the Coastside’s best are at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.
Western snowy plover: A small, sand-colored shorebird that nests on Half Moon Bay State Beach; it is a federally threatened species.

Places

Coastside: The local name for the San Mateo County coast, from Pacifica south through Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Princeton and Half Moon Bay to Pescadero.
El Granada: A village north of Half Moon Bay laid out as a seaside resort by Daniel Burnham for the Ocean Shore Railroad, with curving, circular streets.
Half Moon Bay: A coastal city in San Mateo County about 25 miles south of San Francisco, named for the crescent shape of its bay and incorporated in 1959.
Half Moon Bay Airport: A small airfield between Princeton and Moss Beach, built in 1942 for the U.S. Army and now a general-aviation airport.
Half Moon Bay State Beach: Four miles of protected sandy beach, Roosevelt, Dunes, Venice and Francis, south of Pillar Point Harbor, established in 1956.
Johnston House: Half Moon Bay’s oldest surviving house, a New England saltbox built in the 1850s by James Johnston; the first wood-framed house on the San Mateo County coast.
Main Street: Half Moon Bay’s historic downtown spine, with buildings dating to the 1800s, a bridge from 1900 and the route of the Pumpkin Festival parade.
Montara: A small community on the north end of the Coastside, below Montara Mountain, with a steep surf beach and a name whose origin is still debated.
Moss Beach: A coastal community north of Pillar Point, home to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the former Prohibition roadhouse now called Moss Beach Distillery.
Pescadero: A small farming and ranching town about 14 miles south of Half Moon Bay; the name is Spanish for fishmonger.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse: A 115-foot lighthouse built in 1871 south of Pescadero, tied for the tallest on the U.S. West Coast and named for a ship wrecked there in 1853.
Pilarcitos Creek: The 13.5-mile stream that runs through Half Moon Bay to the ocean; its name means little pillars, after rocks seen by Spanish explorers.
Pillar Point: The rocky headland at the north end of Half Moon Bay that shelters the harbor and sits above the Mavericks surf break.
Pillar Point Harbor: The boat harbor at the north end of the bay, created by breakwaters built from 1959 to 1982, home to commercial fishing boats and pleasure craft.
Poplar Beach: A municipal beach immediately south of Half Moon Bay State Beach, open to horses and leashed dogs.
Princeton-by-the-Sea: A small unincorporated harbor community just north of Half Moon Bay’s city limits, home to Pillar Point Harbor’s restaurants and docks.
Tom Lantos Tunnels: The twin tunnels through Montara Mountain that carry Highway 1 around the old Devil’s Slide cliffs; they opened to traffic on March 26, 2013.