Pacifica beach day
Sharp park beach, Pacifica Municipal Pier, and Taco Bell Cantina
About half an hour from both San Francisco and San Mateo, Pacifica is a great spot if you’re feeling the beach on a warm day. I’ve been organizing photography meetups recently, and we chose Pacifica in October as one of our locations. We spent an entire Saturday afternoon picnicking at Sharp park beach, took photos at Pacifica Municipal Pier, and visited the Pacifica’s Taco Bell Cantina.
Sharp Park Beach & Pacifica Municipal Pier
I drove down the PCH (Highway 1), the scenic highway that runs along the coast of California, all the way until we reached Sharp Park beach. Our original plan was to visit Mori point for photography but decided against it after learning you must hike up to Mori point. We made a last minute decision to do Sharp Park beach for its picnic spots instead. There were benches next to the parking lot and this beach wasn’t busy at all.
Mori point is a famous viewpoint in Pacifica. To get there, it’s a 2.8 mile, 1 hour hike that’s rated easy. It’s a great spot for photos. If you’re looking for a decent spot to picnic next to the water, I would recommend Sharp Park beach.
Sharp Park beach isn’t a good beach if you want to enjoy the sands. As seen in the picture below, boulders are scattered all across Sharp Park. There isn’t space for a setup on the beach, and you won’t see people in the waters. This would be a good beach if you just want to walk or bike along the coast and check out shops nearby.
After our picnic, we went to take photos at the Pacifica Municipal Pier. The pier is right next to Sharp Park beach, but unlike the beach, it was very busy. It isn’t the prettiest pier as it is built entirely of concrete, but the pier provides you amazing views of Sharp Park and the whole stretch of Pacifica.
Pacifica Municipal Pier seems to be a popular spot for fisherman. To my surprise, the fisherman were catching more crabs than fish that day. According to the City of Pacifica guide, the pier is great for catching salmon and striped bass in the summer, and crab season starts in November. I guess crab season was just starting to ramp up when we visited.
You don’t need a permit to fish on the pier, which might explain why the pier was packed with fisherman. Show up early if you want a good fishing spot on the weekends.
We were also given an unexpected gift while on the pier: a pod of gray whales swimming nearby! It was such a cool experience seeing the pod throwing up their tails waving at us. The pier is a popular spot for wildlife watching, and the whales come close to the pier in search for food.
Taco Bell Cantina
After our picnic and photoshoot, we stopped by the Taco Bell Cantina nearby, one of only two Cantinas in California and arguably the coolest Taco Bell in the world. Where else are you going to find a beach house-looking Taco Bell next to Highway 1?
Cantinas are the only Taco Bells that serve liquor. I got the vodka spiked Baja blast that came in a spiral borg, one of those goofy cups they’d give you at a carnival. The drinks were spiked heavy and will definitely get you going. After hanging around in the Taco Bell for a bit, we ended the day playing volleyball at Pacifica State Beach, the most popular of beaches around Pacifica. You’ll catch people sunbathing and surfing; it’d be difficult to space on the beach during the weekends.