San Onofre Trails - Hiking, Nudists, and Secluded Beach

This weekend was another beautiful, sunny November day and at a perfect 70 degrees, it seemed fitting to go for a nice hike. We chose one of our favorite local hiking spots that seems to be surprisingly relatively unknown by lots of San Diego and Orange County locals, which are the trails at the San Onofre bluffs. There are 6 different trails that lead you down to the approx. 3 miles of state beach.  Just south of the state beach, the beach trail continues through Camp Pendleton. This is also an awesome place to go for some uncrowded long boarding!

You're guaranteed to run into a few nudists just south of trail 6. As we've found, the common trend among nude beach goers is they typically tend to be male, age 40+ and love to stand up and do a little stretch coincidentally always when you are walking by. This weekend was no exception for this norm based on the few we ran into getting their tan line free sunbathing in.

The good news is once you pass the nudist section you are on completely remote beach. How many places in Southern California can you be the only one on a beach???

Getting There: From the 5 fwy, exit Basilone and head west. You'll go south past the San Onofre Surf Beach and follow signs to San Onofre State Beach which leads you to the top of the bluffs and the beginning of Trail 1. This is a state beach so the typical $15 day use applies if you do not have a state beach pass (which is awesome to have, by the way).

We like to start at trail 5 or 6 and head south to do the more remote part of the trail which very few people seem to head to.

Here are a few pictures from our hike this weekend:

Kayaking the La Jolla Sea Caves

President’s Day weekend in California was absolute perfection for February! It was 80 degrees at the beach and beautiful clear skies. We took advantage of the gorgeous weekend to use our awesome Christmas present given to us by Cameron and Rachael Denning; a kayak tour through the La Jolla Sea Caves. We would recommend everyone to check out this beautiful part of San Diego!

The take-off point is from the La Jolla Shores beach where there are tons of kayaks available to rent right on the beach. We did a tour, so the downside was being in a big group of several people that had no idea how to kayak so kept colliding with us and somehow someone even capsized on this very flat day in the ocean and we had to wait for them. Everything else was great! The tour leaders gave us tons of interesting local facts about the community and the marine life and the scenery was some of the prettiest you’ll find in California. 

This part of La Jolla is considered a marine reserve so is very well protected by the community. There are a few caves that are really beautiful. It was a unique experience kayaking right up to them and within a few feet of sea lions. We especially enjoyed the history of La Jolla and some of the landmarks and important geological formations within the area.

Yes, they make you wear helmets and vests

Our friends Mark and Britt came along

Our kayak group