Rockaway Beach is a small beach in Pacifica that’s a quick drive from campus and a nice place to go to get your head straight.
Rockaway Beach is just off Highway 1 on the right if you’re heading south from Skyline. The beach features occasional gnarly waves and some tide pools if the tide is low. There’s a trail nearby that leads you up the hill toward Linda Mar. It gives you a nice view and can lead you right near Linda Mar Shopping Center.
However, the Rockaway Beach area doesn’t end with the beach. Just across the stretch of developed land is a quarry full of natural beauty. While pampas grass is an invasive species, it’s quite pretty waving back and forth in the winds, especially in the large fields of it on the floor of the quarry. The quarry area is full of all sorts of cute rodents including kangaroo rats, rabbits and the uncommon ground squirrel, which lives underground.
Walking on the ground level of the quarry, you can often see birds overhead, looking for rodents to eat. It’s a great spot to get pictures of various birds in flight. Snakes slither about while frogs stick near the various water sources in the area. The quarry itself features various trails that lead you up above the cliffs that look out over the ocean.
Natural beauty isn’t all that you’ll see in the area. You may notice the interesting architecture the developed area south of the quarry has to offer. It has several good restaurants, such as Nick’s, which makes a delicious crab sandwich, and Rockin’ Rob’s, which has great burgers and awesome milkshakes, and when you walk in it feels like a blast from the past. On the other side of the quarry is a sewage treatment plant, which isn’t the prettiest thing in the world and sometimes has an unmistakable smell. But this treatment plant has a massive array of solar panels, and it’s interesting and heartening to see businesses attempting to build around green energy and self-sustainability.
The sounds at the beach, while rather typical for a beach, are quite relaxing and great for just sitting, closing your eyes and listening to the sound of waves crashing against sand and rock while birds call overhead. The sounds of the quarry are interesting as well. On an especially windy day, you can hear the wind screaming around you as you approach one of the trails leading to a cliff overlooking the sea. The sound and force of wind is incredible sometimes. One time, it felt like it could knock me off my feet at any moment. This was, of course, nowhere near sheer cliffs that drop into the ocean.
At night, the sounds of the quarry get more interesting because the abundance of rodents brings coyotes, and as dusk falls you can hear them howling over a kill and the sound echoing throughout the quarry. Overall, it’s a great place to go if you just need to go for a nice relaxing walk and then get a bite to eat.
