Torrey Pines State Beach | |
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Location | San Diego, California |
Nearest city | San Diego |
Coordinates | 32°55′53″N117°15′37″W / 32.93139°N 117.26028°W |
Established | 1957 |
Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation |
Torrey Pines State Beach is a public beach in San Diego, California, located in a community of Torrey Pines, south of Del Mar and north of La Jolla. Coastal erosion from the adjacent Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve makes for a picturesque landscape.
The beach is at the base of a series of 300-foot sandstone cliffs of white and golden stone, with a greenish layer sometimes visible at the very bottom. At the north end of the beach the cliffs end and Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, a salt marsh estuary, empties into the ocean. County Route S21 crosses the entrance, with limited free parking along the beach.
The beach area supports a number of avifaunal (bird) species in addition to the marine biota. Soledad Valley, which includes the notable coastal marsh, Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, [1] is cut by a coastal stream which discharges into the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines State Beach. The endangered nominal subspecies of Torrey pine, Pinus torreyana torreyana, is found only on the small coastal strips north and south of Torrey Pines State Beach. [2]
Waves ranging from the low 3-footers to the high 6-8 footers can be found on the north side of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern side of the beach has a surfer/surfing side while the southern side hosts swimming, bodyboarding, etc. There is a red/yellow flag on the north part of the beach showing the boundary between the surfing side and body boarding side. A good rule of thumb is to occasionally check where the flag is as it moves from time to time during the day.
The beach is usually not very crowded in the early hours of the day, when primarily surfers and body boarders are present. During that time, the boundary of the surfing and body boarding areas is not as strictly enforced, as long as common courtesy is being used on both sides. The most popular part of the beach is the swimming area.
Del Mar is a beach city in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The population was 3,954 at the 2020 census, down from 4,161 at the 2010 census.
La Jolla is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying 7 miles (11 km) of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature of 70.5 °F (21.4 °C).
North County is a region in the northern area of San Diego County, California. It is the second-most populous region in the county, with an estimated population of 869,322. North County is well known for its affluence, especially in Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, Poway and Solana Beach, where house prices range, on average, above $1,000,000. Cities along the 78 freeway have more mixed incomes.
The Torrey pine is a rare pine species in California, United States. It is a critically endangered species growing only in coastal San Diego County, and on Santa Rosa Island, offshore from Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara County. The Torrey pine is endemic to the California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion.
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is a coastal state park in San Diego, California. The reserve is one of the wildest stretches of land on the Southern California coast, covering 2,000 acres (810 ha). It is bordered immediately to the south by Torrey Pines Golf Course and to the north by the city of Del Mar. The reserve was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1977.
Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. The course sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just south of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Opened in 1957, it was built on the site of Camp Callan, a U.S. Army installation during World War II. Torrey Pines has two 18-hole courses, North and South, designed by William Francis Bell. The course is named for the Torrey pine, a rare tree that grows in the area.
Black's Beach is a secluded section of beach beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. It is officially part of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern portion of Black's Beach is owned and managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, while the southern portion of the beach, officially known as Torrey Pines City Beach, is jointly owned by the City of San Diego and the state park, and managed by the City of San Diego. This distinction is important as Black's Beach is most known as a nude beach, a practice that is now prohibited in the southern portion managed by the City of San Diego.
Carmel Valley is a suburban planned community in the northwestern corner of San Diego, California, United States. The community is composed of commercial offices, residential units, hotels, retail stores and restaurants.
Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
Torrey Hills is a community of 784 acres (317 ha) in northern San Diego, California, United States. Torrey Hills is a part of District 1 which is represented by Councilmember Joe LaCava on the San Diego City Council.
Torrey Pines is a community neighborhood of 2,600 acres (1,100 ha) in the northern coastal area of San Diego, California, with large areas of office space along Interstate 5.
Rancho Santa Maria de Los Peñasquitos was a 8,486-acre (34.34 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day southwestern San Diego County, California, given in 1823 to Francisco María Ruiz. The name means "Saint Mary of the Little Cliffs". It encompassed the present-day communities of Mira Mesa, Carmel Valley, and Rancho Peñasquitos in northern San Diego, and was inland from the Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve bluffs.
Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve is an urban park in San Diego, California. Stretching approximately 7 miles (11 km), the park encompasses some 4,000 acres (16 km2) of both Peñasquitos and Lopez canyons, and is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The preserve is jointly owned and administered by the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego.
Los Peñasquitos Marsh Natural Preserve and Lagoon is a coastal marsh in San Diego County, California, United States situated at the northern edge of the City of San Diego, forming the natural border with Del Mar, California. This bar-built estuary divides a colony of the endangered Torrey pine on a narrow coastal strip. Three streams empty into the lagoon: Carroll Creek, Carmel Creek, and Los Peñasquitos Creek, with a total drainage basin area of 95 square miles.
Soledad Valley is a coastal valley in San Diego County, California, at the northern end of the city of San Diego. Mention of the valley was made as early as 1850 in association with the occurrence of the Torrey pine tree at the mouth of the lagoon. The colony of the endangered Torrey pine divided by Soledad Valley is one of only two colonies of this tree in the world.
Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds and thus over time alter the shape of trees or shrubs. The process degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant that faces the body of saline water, more than it does the foliage on the landward side. The resultant growth form is asymmetrical, appearing "swept back" away from the ocean.
The California coastal sage and chaparral is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion, defined by the World Wildlife Fund, located in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California (Mexico). It is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The ecoregion corresponds to the USDA Southern California ecoregion section 261B, and to the EPA Southern California/Northern Baja Coast ecoregion 8.
Pinus torreyana subsp. torreyana is a subspecies of the critically endangered Torrey pine in the family Pinaceae. It is native to California, and grows only in the coastal region of San Diego County, California.
To the North: Del Mar City Beach | California beaches | To the South Black's Beach |