Zmudowski State Beach is a beach near Moss Landing in Monterey County, California, United States, operated by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. It is a popular fishing area, featuring perch, kingfish, sole, flounder, halibut, bocaccio (tomcod), jacksmelt, lingcod, cabezon, salmon, steelhead, and occasional rockfish. The beach features the Pajaro River estuary, where a natural preserve has been set aside. The sandy beach is also popular with bird watchers and equestrians. Horses are only allowed near the waterline. Swimming and water sports are hazardous because of strong rip-currents.
The beach is located 20 miles northwest of Monterey, off Highway 1. It is accessible via Giberson Road, a two-mile narrow road through agricultural fields.
The beach is named after Watsonville schoolteacher Mary Zmudowski, who donated it to the State of California in the 1950s. It is pronounced "mud-OW-ski;" the Z is silent.
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or beach:
“Feign then what’s by a decent tact believed
And act that state is only so conceived,
And build an edifice of form
For house where phantoms may keep warm.”
—William Empson (1906–1984)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)