La Jolla Reefs

 From La Jolla Cove to the Children's Pool, and southward to Windansea Beach and Bird Rock, it’s easy to appreciate the simple pleasures of walking along La Jolla's rocky points and reefs. Within just a few miles you will find peaceful bays and pounding surf, offshore kelp and near-shore tide pools, sea caves and seal rookeries, sparkling azure water and gleaming white beaches.

La Jolla Cove is the north facing point on the seaward end of the cliffs that form a small deep water bay here. The cliffs are filled with sea caves. There, you can descend a spooky tunnel in the basement of an old curio shop to Sunny Jim's Cave, or snorkel over from The Cove on a calm day, to explore the huge grotto beneath The Clam.

Families and locals enjoy the terrific swimming and snorkeling afforded by The Cove's sheltered waters and abundance of bright orange Garibaldi fish and other tame marine life (The Cove has long been protected from fishing of any kind). Scuba divers and ocean swimmers use The Cove as a safe point of entry and exit. No surfboards, boogie boards or rafts of any kind are allowed. There is an excellent grass park adjacent to The Cove with bathrooms, showers, picnic tables, a paved pedestrian walkway and several public gazebos.

Boomers is a wave reserved exclusively for bodysurfing. The end of the park leads to Shell Beach. The big draw here is Seal Rock, where California Grey Seals congregate when the tide is low and the surf is down. At high tide, when Seal Rock is awash, you'll find the seals hauled out on the small sand beach inside the breakwall at The Children's Pool.

Casa Beach is a small beach on the south side of the Children's Pool. There are a few small caves on the beach, but they're often choked with seaweed and other flotsam. A long narrow band of grass park indicates that you've arrived at Hospitals. Hospitals is a great reef but a poor beach. At low tide there are wonderful tidepools and great shelling all along the coast here. The conditions don't often cooperate, but when they do, it's the best dive site in town, with dramatic undersea arches and ledges chock full of lobster.

Marine Street Beach may be the prettiest, whitest beach in all of San Diego. This beach is dominated by teens and locals. There are several nameless surfbreaks on the reefs at either end of the beach - all fickle, all dangerous, all heavily localized.

Windansea is accordingly crowded, and the crowd accordingly competitive. It's not always a friendly scene in the water, but refreshingly familiar on dry land. The beach is broken by rocks, creating natural alcoves of varying size, perfect for private parties or private rendezvous. Swimming is best on the south half of the beach between Kolmar Street and Big Rock Reef. Lifeguards supervise near the grass shack at the end of Bonaire Street in summertime.