Bean Hollow State Beach

If you’re zipping along Highway 1 at 55 mph, Bean Hollow might look like just another stretch of sand and surf. But pull over-this place is sneakier and more surprising than it looks. Think of it as the Central Coast’s hidden gem chest, with the lid popped open just enough to catch your eye.

Start with the name. Arroyo de los Frijoles-Creek of the Beans. Spanish explorers named it after the tiny, rounded stones found here. Later, the name got Americanized to Bean Hollow. Not exactly glamorous, but memorable-and accurate. Pebble Beach (yes, another Pebble Beach-California has at least three of them) sits at the northern end of the park, and here the “beans” are no ordinary rocks. These are wave-polished quartz, agate, jasper, chert, and even jade, tumbled smooth and shining like they’ve been through nature’s own rock polisher. Good luck not picking them up and admiring them-but remember, it’s strictly look-don’t-take.

The half-hour stroll between Pebble Beach and Bean Hollow Beach is short on miles but long on variety. Tidepools bubble with sea urchins, snails, crabs, and anemones that look like psychedelic throw pillows. Wildflowers splash the bluffs in spring. Harbor seals haul out on the rocks, pelicans glide just above the surf, and the red-billed oystercatchers make a racket that sounds like they’re scolding you for not knowing your shorebirds.

Bean Hollow is also a reminder of just how wonderfully odd California parks can be. Where else do you find a state beach named for beans, lined with picnic tables for your burrito lunch, and guarded offshore by a lighthouse (Pigeon Point) that looks like it’s posing for a travel brochure?

One last note: those colorful pebbles are captivating. They glisten like jellybeans in the sun. Scoop them up, let them spill through your fingers, admire the centuries of geology at work. Just put them back when you’re done, or you’ll risk the wrath of both the park ranger and the oystercatchers.