Moss Beach is a coastal census-designated place in San Mateo County, California, with a year 2000 census population of 1953. Located in Moss Beach are the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a marine sanctuary; the historic Moss Beach Distillery and the Seal Cove Inn, a destination lodging property. Moss Beach is naturally a foggy, drippy microclimate that gives one a sense of isolation from nearby cosmopolitan regions, and assures that summer temperatures are generally mild.