Sunday, October 4, 2009

San Onofre State Beach

As many of you know, the California's State Parks are in serious trouble due to budget cuts. In an attempt to bring attention to all the wonderful state parks California has to offer, I will be featuring a different CA State Park every week. I hope to bring attention to these treasures to increase awareness of what the state park system has to offer and encourage others to stand up and help protect these important places . 

Anyone who has driven from LA to San Diego is familiar with the long stretch of desolate coastline within the gates of Camp Pendleton. These expanses of open coastline give us a glimpse of what Southern California looked like 100 years ago. While most of Camp Pendleton is closed to the public, there is a state park right along its northern boundary with some of the most famous waves in the world. Surfers from across the globe trek to surf the break at Trestles, a portion of San Onofre State Beach's pristine coastline.

Getting to Trestles is an experience in itself. This is not one of those beaches where you can pull up to a parking lot surrounded by sand and walk a few hundred yards to the water. Most people park about a mile away off of the Christianitos exit and follow the Panhe Trail under the railroad trestles to the beach.

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From there, an open expanse of beach is yours. There are plenty of calm spots around the mouth of the San Mateo creek (which flows all the way to ocean for only part of the year.) for kids to safely play in the shallow water. There are surf breaks for all different skill levels and lots of entertainment for  looky-loos. The rocks are a great place to look for tiny signs of life, from hermit crabs to sea snails.  If you feel like taking a long walk down the beach, you can even find a spot where nudity is popular, even if it is still illegal.

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The beach is also a great place to let your inner architect shine while you build a palace for the hermit crabs you discovered during your exploration of the rocks.

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However you choose to spend your day at San Onofre,  you will be certain to have a perfect day along a stretch of California's Golden Coast.

If you would like more info on San Onofre, click here.


3 comments:

Jerry Emory said...

Hey Sharlene, nice blog! Feel to post them on the California State Parks Foundation's Facebook page. Big following, and the Fans really appreciate this type of info. Thanks for doing your bit to keep up awareness and helping out California's amazing state parks.

Helene said...

How do you find these incredible places??? I'm always in awe when I see the places you've been.

My kids would go nuts for the hermit crabs. I keep thinking the two that we have are gonna die any day now but they're still alive and kicking.

Amy @ The Q Family said...

Wonderful! We will be taking that drive in November so this will go into my trip planning file. :)