Salt Creek Beach is a popular beach for youth, teens, families and adults. But most of all, it's a place kids
love to go to see and be seen by their classmates and friends.
In the photos are a mellow beach crowd on this
approx. one mile stretch of smooth, comfortable sand.
Salt Creek Beach is at the
bottom of a hill and base of a cliff beneath the five diamond
Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. Clean, welcoming and a
family environment teenagers from Mission Viejo, Dana Point,
Laguna Niguel, San Juan Capistrano and nearby cities love, the
beach is one of our favorites in all of Orange County. Similar
to Seal Beach's family friendly beaches,
the two also share another attribute, fine sand.
The lesser publicized Salt
Creek Beach, operated by Orange County (California) Parks, is
listed with an address in Dana Point. Yet the parks system
refers to it as being located between Laguna Beach and Dana. The
traffic moves rapidly along this stretch of Pacific Coast
Highway where the beach parking lot is located, so look for
something unexpected...a lighthouse designed tower and parking
lot of shopping center quality on the west side of the highway.
Like Montage Resort and
its on-location public Treasure Island Beach nearby, Salt Creek
is a well-maintained beach with pristine sand, aqua-colored
waters, nice parking facilities and
tidepools.
If history had played out
in a slightly different manner, the public would not be enjoying
Salt Creek Beach today. As you wander down a paved path from the
parking facilities under an overpass bridge, a plaque along the
green grass lawns of the park commemorates a man named William
Merritt Wilcoxen. He tirelessly fought to save the beach during
1969 to 1972, according to the plaque. Laguna Niguel
Corporation, then AVCO Community Developers acquired beach
property in 1968 that was slated for housing. "Save Salt
Creek" succeeded in creating this treasure that on one side
faces expensive mansions, and on the other, the 393-room luxury Ritz-Carlton resort.
On February 2, 1971, the Orange County Board of Supervisors
signed an agreement for a $2.6 million land
purchase and construction of beach park. Completed
in 1976, the public beach has greeted millions of guests, served
countless hamburgers at the Salt Creek Concessions and rented
thousands of body boards for tourists on vacation.
Love of this beach is second nature to kids who've grown up and
enjoyed summers on the sand or in the water surfing, body
boarding and swimming.
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