The Moss Landing Wildlife Area was created to preserve prior commercial salt ponds that are now coverted to shallow salt lakes used for nesting of the endangered Snowy Plover. For that reason, the bulk of the reserve is off-limits to all by plover banders and reserachers. There is public access to the edges of a couple of salt ponds, which are also heavily used by roosting shorebirds and Elegant Terns at high tide. The north bank of Elkhorn Slough has roosting areas of cormorants, pelicans (both Brown and American White Pelicans roost here), plus egrets and gulls. The salt ponds have resident Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet, plus a variety of ducks (mostly in winter) and are good for phalaropes (Red-necked, Wilson's) in migration.

The restricted areas — shown cross-hatched on the adjacent map —is sign-posted and fenced. There are two public viewing platforms on the north bank of Elkhorn Slough. Scopes are very useful in viewing the salt ponds.

Snowy Plover (usually at quite a distance), roosting shorebirds and terns, Red-necked and Wilson's Phalarope seasonally in their migrations, ducks and geese, pelicans and cormorants, and breeding Savannah Sparrows in saltmarsh. Black Skimmers occur a few times annually, mostly in spring and early fall migrations, and multiple rarities have been tallied over the years.

The only access (unless by boat) is a short gravel road off Highway 1, just north of the Highway 1 bridge over Elkhorn Slough. Currently that gravel road is gated and closed, so the only parking are a couple of (often muddy) pullouts next to the gate (but do not block the gate). In the past, the gate was opened in the morning and closed in late afternoon, and led to a much larger gravel parking lot. Perhaps that access will be re-opened in the future (or at least that is what their website says, linked above), but currently access and road surface remains as neglected as the Wildlife Area sign, faded from 30+ years of neglect (see in photos, above). 

There is a log of parking across the street where the kayaks are launched (in the adjacent Hotspot called Jetty Road, north harbor, and State Beach), as well as public restrooms, but Highway 1 is usually a very busy road and it is generally unsafe to try to cross the Highway. If there is light traffic, it will be moving very fast. If the traffic is heavy, there will be no openings to cross. In those settings, it is best to turn right (north) out of the parking by the gate, and then turn left at Jetty Road, even if all you want to do is to go south on Highway 1. Traffic is a mess here and extremely caution is needed.