Las Lomas, CA

Las Lomas sits at the southern end of the Pajaro Valley, between Watsonville and Prunedale, and the farm country around it runs right up to Elkhorn Slough. About three thousand people are counted here, in a settlement of about a square mile that has no downtown to speak of. The community is rural in character, and the housing matches, with modest single-family homes set apart along a few county lanes. The nearest towns are a drive in either direction. Watsonville has the larger grocery stores and a farmers market, while Prunedale is the next community south. Castroville and the harbor at Moss Landing lie to the west along the coast and are reached by Highway 1. Wildlife and open water define the outdoors. The reserve at Elkhorn Slough is a large tidal marsh above Monterey Bay, with a visitor center that opens at nine in the morning and footpaths on the bluffs above the water, and boat tours and kayaks launch from Moss Landing for a closer look at sea otters and harbor seals. Food in the community is simple. Beyond a market with a taqueria inside it, sit-down restaurants are hard to find, and weekend outings usually go to the taquerias and bakeries of Watsonville or the seafood places near the harbor. The county transportation agency has a study on the G12 corridor, a route of roughly ten and a half miles that is the main road through this part of the county. That fits what the place feels like in person. Everything here depends on a single road, and a car is the only practical way to use it. Fields on one side and the slough on the other leave Las Lomas with an open horizon, and the community is small enough that you can take in most of it from the road.