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Running trails in Half Moon Bay, CA
Half Moon Bay has 9 trails in the directory — 2 paved and 2 on crushed gravel or dirt, 1 loop that returns to the trailhead, 1 with a stated distance, and 1 shaded. 5 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 3,395 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
4.8 ★★★★★ 1,842 reviews
Mountainside area with tall trees, offering canyon hikes, biking trails & horse-riding paths.
California Coastal Trail
4.7 ★★★★★ 860 reviews
Popular scenic coastal trail with ocean views running through a golf course, with limited parking.
Half Moon Bay Coastal Trail
4.8 ★★★★★ 348 reviews
Scenic coastline featuring beaches and trail-laced bluffs for hiking and biking.
Cowell-Purisima Coastal Trailhead
4.8 ★★★★★ 159 reviews
Easy Pacific Coast trail with scenic coastal vistas and wildflowers.
Cowell-Purisima Coastal Trail
4.8 ★★★★★ 113 reviews
Wooded seaside route featuring vistas of the Pacific, cliffs and whales.
Half Moon Bay
4.8 ★★★★★ 58 reviews
Hiking area with picnic tables and a beach offering sunset views, plus opportunities for wildlife spotting.
California Coastal Trail
5 ★★★★★ 8 reviews
El Granada Coast Trail
5 ★★★★★ 3 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Half Moon Bay
- Match the surface to your legs. Half Moon Bay gives you a choice: 2 paved, 1 crushed gravel, and 1 natural surface. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More paved trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? 1 trail here is a loop, so you finish back at the car with no backtracking — the easiest way to run a set distance without thinking about it. On an out-and-back you turn round at half your target distance, which makes any trail fit any run. The longest stated distance in Half Moon Bay is Cowell-Purisima Coastal Trailhead at 3 mi.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. Plenty of trails sit inside parks that gate at dusk and don't unlock until well after sunrise, so a trail that's perfect at lunchtime can be locked at 6am. 5 of the 9 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 4 have trailhead parking, 5 have restrooms, and 2 have a water fountain in Half Moon Bay. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 1 shaded, 3 that runners describe as quiet, 1 dog-friendly, and 3 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Half Moon Bay trails by type
Running trails near Half Moon Bay
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.