La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Cove is a small rocky cove on the La Jolla coast in San Diego, set into the sandstone bluff below Scripps Park. The cove sits inside the Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve, a 1.04-square-mile no-take marine protected area, and inside the larger San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, also no-take. The southernmost portion of the reserve at the cove additionally prohibits boating and anchoring, and buoy lines mark the closed area. A California sea lion colony hauls out on the rocks at the cove and on Boomer Beach immediately to the north. Children's Pool sits a short walk south along Coast Boulevard.

The bottom along the cove walls is rock and boulder, and giant kelp anchors on rocky bottom offshore and to the south. The bare rock and boulder substrate at the cove's edges and shallows is a rocky reef biome. Past the cove mouth, giant kelp anchors on the rocky bottom and grows up through the water column to the surface, putting a kelp forest biome within a short swim of the entry beach. The head of the southern branch of the La Jolla Submarine Canyon lies further offshore but is more strongly an experiential feature of La Jolla Underwater Park as a whole than of the cove itself.

Decades of no-take protection have produced unusually dense and approachable fish populations, and snorkeling, scuba, and wildlife viewing draw nearly all the use here. Freediving for observation is not restricted by the take rules. Surfing is uncommon because the cove is sheltered. Visibility runs 30 to 50 feet in summer and can drop to 5 to 10 feet during plankton blooms or after rain.

Parking is the hard part. Free street parking on Coast Boulevard fills before 9 a.m., metered spots nearby run $1 to $2 per hour, and walking a block or two inland often opens up free options. Take of all living marine resources has been prohibited inside the Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve and the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve under California Code of Regulations Title 14, and enforcement covers both fishing and spearfishing throughout the cove.