Cowell Ranch Beach offers many fun activities including sunbathing, hiking, picnicking, beachcombing, and wildlife watching. The water near Cowell Ranch Beach is extremely unsafe for recreational aquatic activities including surfing and swimming as it is known to have dangerous waves and strong water currents. Cases of drowning-related accidents have also been previously reported from this beach. In addition, we recommend being careful while walking along the beach shoreline as sneaker waves can pull you offshore into the ocean. If you are visiting with children, we strongly recommend against leaving them unattended on this beach.
The water near Cowell Ranch Beach is home to seals, sea lions, and migrating grey whales (usually between December and April). The southern part of Cowell Ranch Beach, known as Seal Beach, is a designated nature preserve that is closed off to public access. However, there is a blufftop overlook above Cowell Ranch Beach from where you can view the seals in Seal Beach and also have a memorable look at newborn seal pups during early spring. This blufftop overlook also has coin-operated binoculars.
The blufftop area above the beach also has hiking and equestrian trails which you can use to explore the vivid and beautiful coastal blufftop landscape present above the beach. One of these trails is the Cowell-Purisima Trail, which is managed in collaboration with the Peninsula Open Space Trust. This trail is a 3.6-mile part of the California Coastal Trail and offers Instagram-worthy views of the blufftop area along the San Mateo County shoreline.
The blufftop area above Cowell Ranch Beach also has interpretive displays that offer interesting information about the local natural history. In addition, the blufftop area above the beach is a great bird-watching spot.
