Unless you take notice of the towering smoke stacks of its power plant while driving along Highway 1, you might miss Moss Landing, a quaint fishing town between Monterey and Santa Cruz. While antique shops and art galleries attract shoppers, boating and fishing prevail. Restaurants like Phil’s Fish Market offer the bay’s freshest catches on ice. Bring your kayak and tour Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve or enjoy a two-hour tour on the coastguard-certified Safari, that departs from Moss Landing. David Packard’s Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has a facility here with state-of-the-art tools for probing the depths of the bay and gathering specimens for the aquarium. For expert level surfers, Moss Landing boasts one of California’s best beach breaks. At night, landlubbers kick up their heels at Moss Landing Inn, where the music is loud and the cocktails are delicious.
Where environmentalists, antique hounds, and gourmands come to find their bliss.
By Charyn Pfeuffer
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Moss Landing Harbor is a center for commercial fishing and whale watching cruises. |
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Photo by Frank Balthis |
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