The reserve consists of a three-mile stretch of beach, tidepool habitat, marsh, erosive bluffs, clifftop trail and cypress and eucalyptus forests.

The site of the current Fitzgerald Marine Reserve was originally settled by Native Americans approximately 5,800 years ago.

In 1908, the Ocean Shore Railroad extended through the town of Moss Beach, effectively creating this location as a tourist destination.

At the north of the reserve San Vicente Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean and has a diverse habitat supporting Red Willow and other riparian species.

From a footbridge across San Vicente Creek, one climbs atop the bluff trail, which rises about 30 meters (98 ft) above the beach.

The active Seal Cove Fault (first mapped and named by William Glen in a 1959 publication of the University of California series in the geological sciences) forms much of the eastern boundary of the site.

Species enjoying this niche are the California sea lion, harbor seal, Snowy egret, Great blue heron, cormorant and a variety of terns, murres, gulls and other shorebirds.

The flanks of San Vicente Creek and another unnamed drainage further south in the preserve are coastal salt marsh habitat.

At the southern edge of the reserve lies the Moss Beach Distillery, a California Point of Historical Interest, that has served as a clifftop restaurant since 1927.