Pescadero, Calif. — THE 48 miles between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz are largely undeveloped, a glorious pastiche of green farm fields that march in rows down to the sea and wild golden meadows that yield to rock-bound coves and curling beaches.
Here, small farm towns and villages dot the windward side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although only 50 miles south of San Francisco, this stretch of San Mateo County feels remote and unchanged, particularly this secluded hamlet two miles east of California 1.
Pescadero has one traffic light, one bank, one tavern and one gas station. A white, steepled church that seems lifted from New England anchors one end of its two-block downtown. It's the type of town that bores its teenage residents but delights urbanites looking for a taste of rural California.
I first visited Pescadero on a sunny Saturday afternoon in mid-July. I was with five friends on a weekend getaway, and we fanned out and browsed its dozen or so downtown stores within an hour. But it was our short attention span, not the wares, that caused us to give them short shrift. The Made in Pescadero shop held beautifully handcrafted armoires, beds, dressers and tables with prices more suited to the big city to its north. A few doors down, Luna Sea had one-of-a-kind sculptures, paintings and crafts. Across the street, Arcangeli Grocery Co. had just-baked scones, pastries and bread steaming up the display case and artichokes done up in myriad ways -- bread, pesto, salsa.
The small town's quirkiness intrigued me, so when a planned sailing trip fell through a few days later, I altered course and returned to Pescadero with my husband, Barry.
There are few choices in lodging along this part of the coast. On my first trip, my group stayed at the Costanoa eco-resort about 10 miles south of Pescadero. It has a 40-room lodge, cabins and tents scattered over 40 acres. Its location is incomparable, across Highway 1 from an untamed stretch of coast. But the service (unbused tables and rubbery eggs) and amenities (uncomfortable bunks in our family bungalow, saunas out of service) weren't worth the upscale prices. I considered the bargain-priced Pigeon Point Lighthouse hostel, which is perched next to a lighthouse on jagged cliffs above the Pacific. Its location alone would fetch triple-digit rates, and when we visited, its rooms were neat and the shared bathrooms clean.
