Moonstone Beach Is My Go-To Place When it's Hot
I live about forty minutes from Cambria, California. When it's hot, Moonstone Beach is my favorite place to beat the heat. It seems people visit for a lot of different reasons. Most people just walk the boardwalk as my husband is doing in the photo above. Others like to play on the beach or visit the tide pools. Some fly kites. Some build things from the driftwood they find on the beach. And some hunt for jade left on the beach by the waves. I mostly walk on the beach and boardwalk and take pictures. Below is a another beach walker.
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| Man walking the shoreline at Moonstone Beach in Cambria, © B. Radisavljevic |
Most of the people I see at Moonstone Beach are not sunbathers. The weather is generally cool and often windy, as you will see in some of the videos below. The people I see in the water are generally not swimmers, but surfers. Most people don't venture deeper into the water than knee high. A lot of people build sandcastles near the water's edge.
Moonstone Beach is a Family Friendly Place
We once saw a family having a reunion there. The activity of the day for intergenerational fun was flying stunt kites. I'd never seen one before, and it was fascinating. In case you haven't seen them in action, either, I took a video with the family's permission. The grandfather was teaching his teenage granddaughter to fly the stunt kite with him. In between watching the action in the air, there are plenty of views of the beach, the commercial/residential area across the highway from the beach, and the structures people have built and left on the beach. Enjoy.
Sometimes as I sit at my computer trying to tend to business, I remember how much fun this family had that day. It might be fun to try it myself. Here's the kite I might get if I had a grandchild to share it with. It appears to be simple enough for me and a child.
Nature is On Display at Moonstone Beach
I enjoy watching the waves and those trying to ride them. I also like to watch the wildlife -- especially the ground squirrels. They star in two portions of the video below. You'll also see a boy trying to figure out how to catch a wave on his boogie board and another climbing the rocks in the tidepools. It only looks like I'm in the water. Take a few minutes, unwind, and watch the waves with me.
As you saw in the video, there are quite a few ground squirrels, and they can put on quite a show. They aren't really tame, but they don't run away and hide until you get a bit too close for their comfort. I was happy to see and get to snap this.
Those two appear pretty skinny in comparison to the one below. I'll bet it does a lot of begging from beach goers. You can also see some of the beach flowers in bloom.
In all seasons but winter there's usually something you can find in bloom or even dispersing seeds. When I was there in August this bush lupine was forming pods.
I think the pods look a bit like caterpillars. What do you think?
The buckwheat also blooms in August. It almost makes the beach look like a garden, unlike the beaches I used to frequent in Southern California.
Seagulls seem to be everywhere, but they seem to really like hanging out on the tops of streetlights.
Sometimes, though, they like performing close to the water. This is part of the Santa Rosa Creek Watershed you see on Moonstone Beach.
Now the gulls have taken to the sky. The watershed captured the sky's reflection so that it looks like an island of sky surrounded by the sand.
Make Some Memories on Your Visit
Then share them with somebody.
Friendship or Love Card: Private Bench by Ocean Card
Surfer at Moonstone Beach, Cambria Heart StickerBlank Card: Gull flies over Moonstone Beach
Surfer at Moonstone Beach, Cambria Heart StickerBlank Card: Gull flies over Moonstone BeachThere's so much more to see than I've room to show you here. But there are a couple of things I should tell you before I post this. The beach does have some public restrooms. They are near the parking lot.
If you want a really private place to take someone special, this is not far off the boardwalk. Behind this tree is a lone secluded bench facing the ocean. You can see a couple enjoying it now.
Although one can usually find a place to park in the lot, if you're driving a long trailer, be careful. This lot, the one by the restroom, wasn't really designed to handle parking something as long as this man is driving. He obviously got it parked, but getting it out of the space he parked in presented a problem. You can see how much difficulty he's having. I had to go over and help direct him so he wouldn't hit anything or get stuck.
Our Central Coast is Full of Beaches
Our Central Coast beaches each have a distinct character and people visit them for different reasons. A lot of the sunbathers prefer Pismo Beach. Surfers especially like Cayucos and Moonstone Beach. You can see a how different Cayucos is from Moonstone Beach in Enjoying the beach at Cayucos, California. Get a brief look at most of our beaches and coastal towns here.
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