Torrey Pines State Beach

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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 / 32.93139; -117.26028 Coordinates: 32°55′53″N117°15′37″W / 32.93139°N 117.26028°W / 32.93139; -117.26028
Established1957
Governing body California Department of Parks and Recreation
Torrey Pines State Beach, September 2021 Torrey Pines State Beach Daytime.jpg
Torrey Pines State Beach, September 2021

Torrey Pines State Beach is a public beach located in the San Diego, California community of Torrey Pines, south of Del Mar and north of La Jolla. Coastal erosion from the adjacent Torrey Pines State Reserve makes for a picturesque landscape. It is a local favorite among surfers and remains a quintessential Southern California beach. Occurrences of bioluminescence in the waters near the beach have been noted. [1]

Contents

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. A county highway crosses the entrance, with limited free parking along the beach.

Ecology

View of beach with Torrey Pines State Park in the background. TorreyPinesBeach.JPG
View of beach with Torrey Pines State Park in the background.

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, [2] 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. [3]

Surf

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, body boarding, 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.

See also

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Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve State park in California

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Torrey Pines Golf Course

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Los Peñasquitos Lagoon Costal marsh in California, US

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, previously called The Soledad Lagoon, divides a colony of the endangered Pinus torreyana on a narrow coastal strip. Three streams empty into the lagoon: Carroll Creek, Carmel Creek, 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 Pinus torreyana 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

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.

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California coastal sage and chaparral Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in Mexico and the United States

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Guy L. Fleming was an American naturalist whose conservation work led to the founding of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, now a 2000-acre protected coastal area of La Jolla, San Diego. The Torrey pine, Pinus torreyana, is the rarest pine species in the United States.

References

  1. "Surf's lighted up at San Diego beaches". September 27, 2011. Archived from the original on December 5, 2013.
  2. "Torrey Pines State Reserve". 2006.
  3. C. Michael Hogan (2008). "Torrey Pine: Pinus torreyana". Globaltwitcher. Archived from the original on 2013-12-26.
To the North:
Del Mar City Beach
California beaches To the South
Black's Beach