Gray Whale Cove

I'm not sure how she does it, but Liz has a knack for finding amazing beaches. Whenever she comes to town we head to the coast and either stumble upon or luckily discover these small and obscure yet absolutely beautiful spots. This one was so small we drove past it the first time and ended up in Half Moon Bay, but back up toward Pacifica we drove until Liz's Cherokee Indian instincts kicked in and landed us atop the hidden Gray Whale Cove Beach. You can barely see it from Highway 1 way above, but the hike down proved well worth it. Enclosed on both sides by cliffs, the beach is windless and pleasant, a very different experience from the blow-your-hair-to-bits beaches that surround it. This place lives up to its name in terms of whales, too: we saw several a half-mile or so off the beach.

Apparently we're not the only ones who've found and loved this beach, however. While there were some surfers on our side of the cove, the other end of the beach seemed to be more popular with the nude crowd. There were only a few people at first, but things picked up as the afternoon went on; unfortunately (or maybe fortunately at the time) they were far enough away that we couldn't get a good shot of them. We were hoping to give Stephen a funny photo surprise!