The Point Arena
is on The Move!
The Point Arena, a two-masted wooden steam schooner, was built in San Francisco in 1887. For 26 years she plied the coast between Vancouver Island in Canada and San Pedro in California, transporting hundreds of tons of lumber and other products annually between small ports like Pigeon Point and the markets they served along the coast.
The Elephant Seals are on their Way Back!
Each year, during late October and November, thousands of northern elephant seals make a U-turn from their main feeding grounds in the Bering Sea and in deep offshore Pacific waters. Adult bulls and pregnant cows conclude lengthy round trips to their feeding grounds and, in most cases, head back to the beach where they were born. For us this means back to Año Nuevo.
Half Moon Bay Campfire Renovation
The campfire center at the Half Moon Bay State Beach campground was built about twenty years ago. Through the years it has seen many interpretive presentations—mostly on Friday and Saturday evenings between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays—with topics ranging from the ocean to the stars and everything in between related to nature or science.
Quiroste Valley
Cultural Preserve
The Amah Mutsun, a tribal band of Native Americans, are collaborating in Quiroste Valley with archaeologists from California State Parks (CSP) and the University of California in researching and re-introducing traditional resource and environmental management as practiced in the valley before the arrival of Europeans. It is partly a case of learning—or, perhaps more accurately, re-learning—by doing. Nestled just over a mile from the sea on state-owned land under CSP’s jurisdiction and oversight, this small valley was a seasonal home of the Quiroste Tribe and their predecessors for millennia.
Updated Trails at Año Nuevo State Park
The trails at Año Nuevo State Park, from the Visitor Center and Parking lot to the viewing points, have been undergoing a multi-year upgrade to improve accessibility for everyone.
Seal Adventure Secrets
We want to share some fabulous photos and tips for getting the most out of your day at our annual fundraising event—Seal Adventure at Año Nuevo State Park. The only way to get extended access to view the northern elephant seals at the peak of the breeding season.
School by the Shore
Learning to care about nature only from textbooks isn’t much fun and not much help.
Hands-on, eyes-on experience is what counts.
That’s why, every year, so many K-12 and college science teachers schedule field trips to visit the ecosystems they teach in the classroom. Coastal state parks in San Mateo County—Half Moon Bay State Beach, Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, Bean Hollow State Beach, Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park, and Año Nuevo State Park—offer an exciting variety of wild places, native plants and migrant and indigenous animals that draw thousands of young scholars in school field trips. CSPA and its donors support these efforts with educational materials for students, docents, and all park visitors. CSPA also supports repairs and upgrades to trails, benches, signage and more.
Fog Signals at Pigeon Point
Preserving the Historic Diaphones
The bright beacons in lighthouses were all well and good when the air was clear—but not so much in heavy fog or rain. That’s when audible fog signals were better to warn mariners off the rocky coast.
Telescopes for Año Nuevo Visitors
Likely we all, at one time or another, have stood in a park or nature preserve, surveyed our surroundings, and wished we had brought binoculars or a viewing scope with us. Are those lumps on a distant offshore rock in fact seals? What species is that bird, and what is it eating? What’s out there on Año Nuevo Island?
In a Hidden Corner of Half Moon Bay State Beach.
Thanks to a $6,000 grant and donations from local businesses a struggling native plant nursery, staffed by State Park volunteers, has been transformed from a weedy plot of land to a well-kept gravel work area with new potting tables for the plants and storage for tools to protect them from the harsh salt air. Thanks for the grant go to Anchor Brewing of San Francisco, which generously donated the funds, and to the California State Parks Foundation, which passed Anchor’s donation on to CSPA as the grant for the nursery.