Hiking From Torrey Pines to Pacific Beach

The beach at Torrey Pines

Friday. Today we are hiking from Torrey Pines to Pacific Beach. A few weeks ago we did a portion of the hike, from La Jolla Shore to Torrey Pines.

When we start at 9:30, the tide is going down, it will be up again at 9:00 pm tonight. We have all day to hike on the beach. We estimated it is around 13 miles long. It is amazing to think that we are “in town” and yet we feel so far away from everything, especially before we arrive on La Jolla Shore Beach. The cliff follows the shore and separates us from the town and we feel completely alone. Birds are walking on the beach, digging with their beak in the sand as the waves go down. We see only a few people.

At the beginning of the hike the cliff draws a large shade on the beach and it quickly disappears as the sun comes up. The swell is rather big today and we see quite a few surfers when we arrive near Scripps Pier. We are stuck a few times, at the bottom of the cliff, waiting for the waves to go down and to let us go through. On La Jolla Shore beach, a lot of people are playing ball, sunbathing and surfing. The day is gorgeous, the air crisp and the wind brings some fresh air. We walk a little bit in town when we cannot do otherwise, we go on the little trail on top of the cliff and we are soon next to the beach in La Jolla where people come to see the seals dozing in the sun and playing in the water. We stay there for a while, watching the young playing with their moms.

Along the way, the landscape changes often, the beach is sometimes large and sandy, the sand white, tan, or almost black. We walk on big rocks or on pebbles, sometimes in squishy piles of warm seaweeds, or on large flat rocks covered with soft tiny plants. Sometimes we have to find a way to continue on the shore, and although we are technically in town, it is quite an adventure and we see very few people on some portions of the hike! There are amazing tide pools before to arrive on the beach at Pacific Beach and we see a lot of colonies of hermit crabs and light purple anemones.

Then we finally walk towards the Crystal Pier, in the calmness of the end of the afternoon. Children are playing, people are walking, kiteboarders are done for the day and all the colorful kiteboards are lying on the beach, points up, drying, looking like funny flying saucers. Garnet Avenue is the end of our journey, we take the bus to go back home.