WAVECREST CALIFORNIA COASTAL TRAIL EXPANSION
Wavecrest Open Space is a gem on the San Mateo Coast, offering stunning views, wildlife watching, and coastal recreation, especially known for the Bird Trail, a beloved 1/3-mile stretch of the California Coastal Trail that provides a unique vantage point for viewing migrating whales, raptors, and shorebirds. The Coastside Land Trust is working to make Wavecrest safer, greener, and more accessible for everyone with the Wavecrest Coastal Trail Project.
What’s Coming?
Expanded Trails: 2.7 miles of new, compacted gravel trails connecting Poplar Beach to Redondo Beach, completing a vital section of the California Coastal Trail.
Safe Beach Access Stairs: From the blufftops down to Redondo Beach.
Improved Parking: Gravel parking with restrooms/ drinking water/bike racks/trash
Wildlife Protection: Reducing erosion and restoring habitats
Universal Access: Trails and facilities designed for accessibility year-round, making it safer for families, seniors, and people with mobility challenges.
Why It Matters?
Preserving Wildlife: Wavecrest is the most important site on the San Mateo Coast for wintering raptors, as well as a rich diversity of other shore bird species, including shorebirds, pelicans, and cormorants. This project will help protect their habitats while giving visitors better access to wildlife viewing.
Sustainability: By consolidating public access onto well-designed, environmentally-friendly trails, this project will protect Wavecrest’s grasslands, wetlands, and roosting sites.
Safety: Informal trails are not only unsafe for visitors but also accelerate erosion. The new trails will provide a safe, year-round experience for hikers, bikers, and equestrians.
Scenic Views: From the new trails and the Bird Trail, visitors can enjoy breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean, spot migrating whales, and watch raptors in flight—all while protecting this precious coastal ecosystem.
Project Features:
2.7 miles of compact gravel trails, with equestrian-friendly soft shoulders.
Boardwalks through wet areas to protect habitats.
Beach access stairs for safe, easy beach visits.
New parking areas with 35-45 spaces, restrooms, drinking water, and trash bins.
Preservation of Wavecrest’s wildlife habitat and native vegetation.
Accessible trails and facilities for all users, including families, seniors, and those with mobility challenges.
Wavecrest Coastal Trail is ready to welcome you safely, while protecting the natural beauty and wildlife that make this space so special. Let’s work together to keep Wavecrest a place of joy for generations to come. Dogs are welcome on-leash at Wavecrest. Please remember to pick up after your pets and respect others.
Keep your eye out for updates on this project as we get closer to construction in Summer 2025. Or reach out to us at info@coastsidelandtrust.org with questions.
TRAIL UPDATES:
January 2025 Update- Written by Sara Polgar
If you have been out to the Wavecrest blufftops recently, you may have noticed wooden stakes in the ground with orange paint in multiple locations. These are parcel corner markers set up by a surveying team.
In Fall 2024, Cross Land Surveying, Inc. completed a “boundary survey” of parcel corners throughout the entire project area. This was a huge amount of work, but necessary to help ensure that the planned trail alignment is entirely within CLT’s parcels and the City of Half Moon Bay-owned rights-of-way, or “paper streets,” which the City Council authorized CLT to use for the trail at its November 19, 2024 meeting.
In early December 2024 Sara Polgar (CLT project manager) and the project engineer, Tim Best, walked the entire trail alignment and planned parking areas to make adjustments based on the survey points. Fortunately, they did not have to find all of the orange-topped stakes to do this! Tim had the survey points locations pre-loaded on a mapping app on his phone.
While they were out there, Sara & Tim assessed other factors as well for updating the trail plan.:
Having the trail alignment follow the paths of existing casual trails as much as possible to minimize disturbance to new areas.
Keeping the alignment along the bluff edge as much as possible – where most people prefer to be– while maintaining a sufficient buffer to allow for likely erosion.
Making sure that the updated alignment still avoids and minimizes impacts to the mapped wetlands and other sensitive habitats and species that are protected.
After Tim updated the alignment, Sara and Cleopatra Tuday, a biologist from SWCA Environmental Consultants with expertise in coastal plant communities and wetlands, walked it in early January 2025.
Cleo identified areas with a lot of native plants and high habitat value – such as mature “stand” of Danthonia californica (CA oatgrass) – and made recommendations for additional adjustments to the trail alignment to reduce impacts to these areas. She also recommended best practices for removing and reusing soils and native plants from the new trail construction for restoration in areas of bare ground.
With these latest refinements to the trail alignment sorted out, CLT is finalizing the project plans and preparing to submit them for final permits and getting bids from contractors.