Lovers Cove
Avalon · Catalina Island · California
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Updated 10:00 AM PT today · July 28, 2026The clarity holds through the day, with a light afternoon onshore the only disturbance to the entry shallows.
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Map · getting there
33.341° N · 118.320° W
Catalina Island, CA 90704
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Lovers Cove is the second-most popular snorkeling spot on Catalina, behind Casino Point Dive Park. The cove sits a few hundred yards east of the Cabrillo Mole ferry landing along Pebbly Beach Road, with buoy lines marking the swim area and glass-bottom boats running tours through it all day. The beach itself is rocky rather than sandy, which makes the walk-in entry hard on bare feet and difficult for anyone with mobility issues. Underwater the bottom is rock and boulder without kelp cover, which makes Lovers Cove a rocky reef biome. Visibility usually runs 30 to 50 feet, and tends to be better in winter when the plankton thins.
Most visitors walk over from the ferry landing or arrive by golf cart. Take is prohibited within Lovers Cove SMCA, with one exception: recreational hook-and-line fishing from the Cabrillo Mole, just outside the cove's western boundary.
Rocky Reef
The rocky reef biome is bare rock, boulder, and cobble structure without a kelp canopy above it. The hard relief and its crevices shelter invertebrates and reef fish, and the structure concentrates life that the surrounding sand cannot hold. Learn more about this biome and the species found in it by clicking the link below.
Learn more in the Biome GlossarySnorkel Species Report
Nearby beaches
Kelp Forest
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