More Coastal Exploring… I mentioned

More Coastal Exploring…

I mentioned in an earlier posting that we’ve been spending some weekend time exploring the Pacific Coast near our home. Usually, this is just a day trip — but after a long week it’s sometimes nice to plan an overnight getaway just for the change of spirit it brings.

We recently stayed at Costanoa, a wonderful place on the Pacific coast almost exactly halfway in between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Costanoa sits above Highway 1 — on the eastern side of the road — and has wonderful views looking down to the Pacific.

This section of the Pacific Coast is especially rich in sites to see. If you like elephant seals, Costanoa is about a mile north of Ano Nuevo. If you like lighthouses, it’s about a mile south of Pigeon Point Light Station.

Costanoa offers a range of accommodations: campsites up through premier lodge rooms. It was a cool, crisp, late California winter day when we were there so we opted for a room in the Lodge.

Friends have highly recommended the Douglas Fir Cabins.

The tent cabins (available in several different price ranges) look like fun also.

Except for the Lodge, all of the other accommodations (cabins, campsites, etc.) have access to a shared Comfort Station. Not having stay there before, we were a little concerned about what the facilities might be liked — but they’re wonderful. Basically, a men’s an women’s locker room with warm floors, etc. In between the two rooms, there’s an outdoor fireplace that the management lights at sundown and when the sun comes back up in the morning. Next time, we’re definitely going to try out one of the cabins!

There’s no full service restaurant on the premises or nearby but the General Store has wonderful deli and take-out dishes as well as breakfasts in the morning. We opted to head to the Davenport Cash Store Restaurant for dinner (about 10 miles south of Costanoa) — although the great food at the General Store was very tempting dinner fare. During warmer weather, there are BBQ’s right outside the Store that would be perfect for grilling.

I was out early in the morning exploring. The sun was stunning and, even more remarkable, there was a beautiful half moon hanging right over the Pacific! Although probably named for the shape of the coast and not a similar occurence over a hundred years ago, the moonscape nevertheless reminded me of Half Moon Bay!

Costanoa provides an “Adventure Guide” in the Lodge rooms (it’s also available for sale at the front desk). The Guide is something special — it contains an array of coverage of things to do on this stretch of the coast. We bought a copy — even though we know we’ll be back to Castanoa — because of all of the great tips it provides for coastal exploring in this area. The management of Costanoa really should think about making the Guide’s content available online!

Some other Costanoa links: About.com and Fast Company.