I didn’t realize until I was post-processing the photos from a short trip to Orange County this past weekend that we’d not visited Shaw’s Cove for a full five years.

You see, after 2019 things got weird. Things got weird for almost every aspect of everyone’s lives, but going to the beach suffered too. Technically we did visit Laguna Beach proper for a bit with some friends at some point in that span, but with no swimming involved. In 2019 the kelp forests were dead. The rocky bits at the sides of the cove were covered in purple sea urchins and clams. The urchin problem became so widespread that at one point it was estimated the urchins alone ate 95% of the kelp forests along the California coast and it became a (largely ignored, I’m sure) global news story.

So when the summer of 2020 rolled around we decided to skip Shaw’s entirely and do one-day excursions to La Jolla Shores. This was a somewhat disappointing exercise as the sky was overcast on the day of the trip and we spent more time in the car than on the beach. In 2021 we had a duplicate experience.

Then in 2022 Sam suffered a complete spiral fracture in June and was in no shape to ride in a bumpy little Miata all the way down to La Jolla, so we skipped the beach entirely that year.

By the summer of 2023 we were ready to leap back into action, renting a hotel room and gathering our likeminded beach friends. However, this was the summer of the hurriquake. Unusually early storm activity pushed so much runoff into the coastal waters that the beaches were closed. We decided to cancel our plans.

And so we have arrived at 2024. Since the last time we went to Shaw’s Cove we bought a Bolt, which is much more comfortable for distanced travel with coolers and parasols and beach tents and all that. We had ~8 different friends lined up to join us last weekend, but in the preceding days all of them found something better to do (or suffered injuries). We decided to go on our own anyway.

We were surprised to find a great parking spot right on Cliff drive a short walk from the beach (we almost always have to part a few blocks east on the very vertical side streets) and lots of people. In fact more people, and in younger ages, than we’d ever seen at Shaw’s. Someone must have put the place in a TikTok video at some point.

The wave energy was low so I put on my wetsuit and took a look around. The first thing I saw was a large ray, bigger than I’m used to seeing there. And a minute later an adolescent leopard shark swam right over top of it.

Eventually I stopped chasing the ray and turned toward the underwater cliffs on the north end of the cove. I was surprised to see an abundance of wildlife swimming among kelp strands as numerous and thick as any I’d seen ten years ago before the die-off. I swam out and around, then decided to go south and see what happened to the other end of the beach.

This was an even bigger suprise. Where barren rock, save for purple sea urchins, lay five years ago there was another kelp forest. I drifted further south, visiting a new beach: Fisherman’s Cove and it’s Laguna Beach Marine Life Refuge. It was here that I discovered the real treat: a protected kelp forest (with grass and that purple flowery stuff) bounding with life. Including multiple leopard sharks, large Sheepshead fish, rays of all kinds, shovelnose guitarfish, and more! And unlike the sides of Shaw’s, the shallow area was teeming with more than sand lovers (hidden rays and halibut), it had kelp and grass of its own, supporting a gentle vibrant ecosystem.

This was an astounding discovery. The reserve was attempting to match La Jolla’s own, though since few of the sharks were adults it fell just short. However, this beach is a same day visit and 50 miles from our house, not an expensive overnighter in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

This was grand, but the excitement died up mid afternoon when the sun went into hiding under permanent cloud cover. Apparently the fish don’t like being at the beach on an overcast day either! They mostly disappeared, hiding in their caves underneath the rock escarpments at the lower edges of the cliffs below the waterline. These are the places divers go to find their photos. But I’m no diver.

Back home I did more research and discovered we’d been doing it wrong the whole time. The Reserve actually has (extremely limited) parking and restrooms. The one diss track for Shaw’s has always been the lack of facilities, both to wash sand off and, for those not going in the water, a way to dispense with digested liquids. So much so that it took me ten years to discover some folks have been coming up with very inventive ways to get around this problem. Apparently we don’t stop by the grocery store on the way to the beach for a plastic cup of coffee every time just because somebody likes coffee, that cup serves a more noble purpose.

I should probably qualify that statement. We have a tent that we bring to the beach and it seals up so (mostly) nobody can see what you do inside. I use it to change out of my trunks, but others use it to relieve pressure that can come from being stuck on a beach waiting for your husband to come back out of the water hour after hour. Especially if all your friends cancel so there’s no way you can…leave your valuables unguarded and wade into the waves up to your waist for no reason at all for only a couple minutes.

Too much information?

Okay, I’ll show you something to distract you and hopefully you’ll forget about it.

Years ago my friend went to Shaw’s on a day we just couldn’t join and he spoke of a giant school of sardines. I was jealous until now.

Speaking of a muddy mess. I didn’t realize there was a wall of krill (?) in front of this bat ray until I got home.

We were thinking of going back to the beach this weekend because why not? But life gave us a good (well, it was a bad thing) reason not to. More on that in another post.