Every Trail Tells a Story
San Clemente State Beach S
To walk a shoreline that still feels removed from the freeway frenzy.
To see one of California’s legendary surf breaks up close.
To stand where Orange County ends, San Diego County begins, and Southern California culture collides with nature.
“Our beach shall always be free from hurdy-gurdies and defilement. We believe beauty to be an asset as well as gold and silver, or cabbage and potatoes.”
So declared Ole Hanson, Norwegian immigrant, dreamer, and founder of San Clemente in 1925. While other developers were carving up Los Angeles and San Diego, Hanson staked his future on this then-remote stretch of coast-66 miles from one city, 66 miles from the other. His contemporaries thought him crazy. Today, they’d call him visionary. The little Spanish-style town he built around the sea and the sun has grown, of course, but San Clemente State Beach still carries echoes of Hanson’s promise.
Here, the bluffs rise tan and handsome, shielding the beach from freeway roar and subdivision sprawl. The soundtrack is simple: surf, seabirds, and-every so often-the clatter of a train passing along the shoreline tracks. It’s a reminder you’re still in California, but maybe not the California of traffic jams and noise.
At the south end of the beach lies San Mateo Point, where wooden trestles stride across the sand. These gave Trestles Beach its name, but the world knows it better as one of the finest surf breaks on the West Coast. When conditions align, waves peel so long and smooth across the point that they’ve been the stuff of surfer legends for generations. It’s not unusual for the trail south to be just as full of barefoot board-toting athletes as it is of hikers.
Walkers have their own rewards. Sandpipers and herons stalk San Mateo Creek, which winds out of the coastal hills and pools by the sea. Salt grass and cattails line the creek mouth. Stand still long enough and you may spot an egret lifting off in slow motion, all wings and grace. Southward stretches San Onofre State Beach, with its broad sands, historic surf culture, and those giant domes of the now-shuttered nuclear power plant. Northward, the bluff-top houses and terracotta roofs of San Clemente catch the sun, looking like Ole Hanson’s Mediterranean dream brought to life.
San Clemente State Beach isn’t wilderness, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s the kind of place where nature, history, and California culture all mingle. On a hike here you’re walking the border-literally, at San Mateo Point, which marks the line between San Diego and Orange counties, and figuratively, between the wild coast that was and the tamed coast that is.
San Clemente State Beach is located at 225 W. Calafia Ave in San Clemente, From I-5 South, exit Avenida Calafia. From I-5 North, exit Cristianitos Road.The state beach entrance is just west of the freeway. Park at the Calafia Beach unit (fee) or along Avenida Calafia where permitted.
Head past the snack bar and restrooms, cross the railroad tracks via the pedestrian underpass, and step onto the sand. Follow the shoreline south beneath bluffs sculpted by wind and water into Bryce Canyon-in-miniature. Continue along the beach toward the trestles and San Mateo Point.
At the creek mouth, linger among the rushes and shorebirds. If conditions allow, ford the shallow creek and keep going toward San Onofre-or simply retrace your steps. For a loop, duck under the trestles and follow the park service road inland, where you’ll share the climb with surfers in flip-flops. This road rejoins the San Clemente Coastal Trail, winding back through a neighborhood to the campground and Calafia Beach access.