Salt Creek Beach Park

Salt Creek Beach Park is an 18-acre OC Parks beach below the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel bluff in Dana Point, Orange County. A pedestrian underpass and trail drop from the bluff parking lot down to the sand. The central beach is sand, and the south end runs into cobble and boulder structure that ties through to Strands Beach and the Dana Point Headlands. A small offshore reef, known locally as the Strands or Gravels, produces a consistent left-breaking wave at the north end. Monarch Beach (the Monarch Bay Beach Club) and the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach sit on the bluff at the north, and Strands Beach extends south toward the Headlands Conservation Area. The Ritz-Carlton grounds gate at the south end keeps pedestrian access along the bluff open 24 hours. Salt Creek sits inside the Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area, which runs along the Dana Point coast from roughly 33.4550 N to 33.5008 N.

The substrate shifts across the beach. Sand and breaking surf carry the central section, the south end runs into the cobble and boulder structure that climbs into the Headlands, and giant kelp anchors on rocky bottom offshore at the south end and at the offshore reef. The sand and surf at the center put the central beach in the surf zone biome at entry. The cobble and boulder structure at the south end and the offshore reef bring in a rocky reef biome along the same stretch. The kelp anchored on rocky bottom offshore makes this a kelp forest biome reachable by short swim from the south end.

Surfing on the offshore reef break is the main use. Spearfishing for finfish is common on the south-end structure and at the offshore kelp under SMCA rules, with hook-and-line fishing from shore steady alongside it and lobster and sea urchin take also permitted. Scuba and snorkeling work the rocky south end and the kelp in calm conditions, and swimming holds on the central sand.

A large paid public lot sits off Ritz-Carlton Drive at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Ritz-Carlton Drive, $1 per hour year-round. The beach is open 5 a.m. to midnight. Under California Code of Regulations Title 14, take of all living marine resources is prohibited inside the Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area, with three exceptions: recreational hook-and-line fishing for finfish, recreational spearfishing for finfish, and recreational take of spiny lobster and sea urchin. Take from the tidepools is prohibited.