Dunes Beach, Half Moon Bay State Beach

Location: Dunes Beach, one of the three access points of Half Moon Bay State Beach
Entrance Fee: $10
Directions: End of Young Avenue off of Highway 1

We didn’t plan on taking the campervan anywhere during Easter weekend, but grandma and grandpa came out for a visit on Friday and we were able to fit in a beach “picnic.” Sunset was around 7:25 pm, so we had time to make our way to the coast and have our dinner before the sun went down. We headed over to Half Moon Bay State Beach, which has three access points at Francis Beach, Venice Beach and Dunes Beach. We chose to go to Dunes Beach, which had a nice long parking lot with restrooms and easy access to the beach at the south end. This was a popular place for people to drive in and watch the sunset, but there were plenty of parking spaces and everyone had their own “space.”

We brought our chairs and were planning to sit outside the van and eat dinner, but the wind was strong and the temperature kept dropping by the minute, so all five of us ate inside. Once we got our food and settled in, it was quite pleasant. We had a full view of the sunset, which was the star of the evening.Since we didn’t have much extra time for food prep at Half Moon Bay, I brought some already prepared dinner items. Thank goodness because I think it would have been difficult to cook with everyone in the van and cooking outside would have been a challenge with all that wind. It freed up some time to explore and take a stroll before we ate.