Day 20, Friday March 20th: Exploring the south end of the Pacific Coast Highway (US1)

 Friday morning we packed up and moved campgrounds, about 3 miles, but closer to the beach.

We arrived at San Clemente State Beach around 09:00 and of course our site was still occupied, so we went to the day use area and parked. We toured the gift shop/cottage and then went back to the Serenity and unloaded the Scooter.  We got everything locked up and set out on the scooter about 10:00, but cruised by our site on the way out of the park....it was empty. I parked the scooter (and June) at our site and fetched the Serenity, we were parked and ready to go again about 10:30. 

San Clemente is just south of the start of US1 which is at Dana Point and we set out in that direction. 

Our first stop was at Dana Point Harbour south entrance, but we really could not get in due to the construction, it was everywhere. I later looked up that the Harbor is going through a complete revitalization that is going to take several years, so it is not surprising that we ran into it. 

Dana Point

We moved just a bit farther north towards what is called Dana Point Caves on the north side of the harbor. We did not find any caves, probably because "technically" the beach access was closed and it was high tide.

Dana Point Harbor

The view of the harbor is spectacular, it is a bit bigger than Bridgeview Harbour Marina, it has about 2500 Slips.  

The harbor was beautiful and we enjoyed walking the board walk. 

Dana Point Homes

The houses literally are hanging on the cliffs above the marina. 

My new house

I picked this house out and made an offer, when the phone doesn't ring, I will know they accepted it! 😎

Baby Beach

They have a beautiful beach, named Baby Beach,  and there were many many paddle boarders out in the harbor. 

Dana Point Overlook

As we left Dana Point we could see a dead end road that was on top of the bluff, I detoured for a quick view, it had a beautiful overlook of Dana Point Harbor.

Our next planned stop was the 1000 Steps Beach in Laguna Beach, but we missed it.  It is somewhat hidden and the traffic in Laguna Beach is just nuts, it is stop and go 50 feet at a time for miles.  When I realized we passed it, there was no way I was going back in that traffic, so we just kept going north. We were getting hungry so we stopped at the "The Place" in Corona Del Mar, barely south of Newport Beach. It was basically a sports bar but had good food and I got to see a little of the NCAA March Madness play. 

After our hunger fix, we moved up US1 to Huntington Beach.  I have been on big beaches but Huntington Beach is one of if not the largest we have been on.  Wow, it is huge and beautiful. 

Huntington Beach

It is over 200 yards of beach just from the parking lot to the water, all fine sand and it was getting warm. By the time we reached the water June was scampering.   

Huntington Beach

The water quickly cooled down our hot feet as we walked off our lunch. 

We enjoyed walking the beach. The beach is pretty uniform as far as the eye can see. Fortunately, there are numbered life guard towers about every 500 yards that make it easy to figure out where you entered the beach. 

At this point we were about 30 miles north of San Clemente and it was around 14:30, so we decided to start our way back to camp. Going 30 miles on the coast of California can take several hours and we were getting a bit sun soaked. 

On our way back, we made a point to find the 1000 Steps Beach. It is well hidden, we passed it again, but only by a few 100 yards. Parking was on the other side of the road, pulling a U-turn in the Laguna Beach traffic, even on a scooter, is nearly impossible, but we did. Then we had to cross the traffic to walk to the access, because there is not even a walk lane on the parking side of the road. I wonder how many pedestrians have been struck trying to get to the 1000 Steps Beach access. 

1000 Steps Beach Access

The 1000 steps beach access is just a gate between houses that leads to a concrete staircase of about 220 steps. It is not 1000 steps but on the way back it feels like it. I noticed the stair risers were well over the normal 7" which makes for steep stairs and a good workout. 

1000 Steps Beach

The beach itself is very pretty with rich people houses on the cliffs surrounding it. 

1000 Steps Beach

We were by far the oldest people on the beach, it was all young people having a good time. I am sure it is because the climb out is strenuous, but I think it is worth the climb. 

1000 Steps Beach

1000 Steps Beach has a few rocks along the shore that the waves crash over, it is mesmerizing. 

We were glad we stopped at 1000 Steps Beach, it was small and lively, it had a good vibe. 

We scootered our way back to camp arriving around 17:00. The scooter needs gas again, somehow with all the running around we put another 100 miles on it. 

US1 from Dana Point to Huntington Beach

We only covered a small portion of US1 but it gave us a flavor of the beaches, the scenery and traffic. 

We are debating how to get past LA, do we stay to the coast or take the highway?

After we got back I got in my 15 min siesta. June contacted Mary, since Mary offered to take her to her Yoga session in the evening. Mary picked up June around 18:00 and I had a few hours to myself...I walked the campground, took the scooter for ice and made hot dogs in the microwave for dinner (I am a good cook). 

Saturday, we plan to stay local and chill for the morning.