Salt Creek Beach, Dana Point, CA

Salt Creek Beach
33333 S. Pacific Coast Hwy.
Dana Point, CA 92629
(949)923-2280 or (949)923-2283 ocparks.com

Leave it to Beaver scenes with high school students placing oil on each other's backs, or boys watching the girls, watching the boys, are typical at Salt Creek Beach. This is South Orange County's beach playground and the crowd is very nice, low-key, and generally quite wholesome.

Parents bring their kids to play in the sand, teens spend time reading, swimming, surfing, and socializing, and the occasional tourists from the hill gets driven down on the courtesy golf cart ride from Dana Point's Ritz Carlton hotel that shares the same public beach.

If you are passing by on Highway 1 between Laguna Beach and San Diego, be sure to stop at Salt Creek Beach to spend an hour enjoying the beach. The walk down to it from the parking lot includes a bridge underpass with great murals, and you can buy snacks & sodas at the concession at Salt Creek Beach. Take change for the meters so you don't get a parking ticket.