1000 Steps Beach Day // Laguna

Clear waters, caves, rock climbing, natural pools…1000 Steps Beach has it all! After hearing so many friends gush about Laguna, I had to check it out for myself. I had seen pictures of the beautiful pools all across Instagram and yet they still seemed unreal. The stairs were totally worth it and I can now say this beach is definitely my favorite.

I decided to go on a Sunday with my friend Tiffani. We were able to find parking pretty quick, and all street parking is free too! (yay!) Luckily there isn’t really 1,000 steps; there’s actually only 250…but they are STEEP. At the stairs, groups of people in yoga pants and nikes were climbing up and down the narrow staircase. The beach was beautiful and the sand was so soft. We walked down the beach where the cave was and set up camp on some rocks out of the waves’ reach.

 

 

To actually get to the pools at the “private beach”, the tide has to be low enough to climb the rocks. I highly recommend checking the tide report for Laguna before you go if you want to get to the pools! Flip flops are also extremely helpful because the climb will tear your feet up if you go barefoot! Ouch!

When the tide went finally went down enough, we started our climb over the rocks. Tide pools were everywhere and there were so many crabs in between the rocks! We took a little break to explore the sea life, then continued on our way. Once we finally there, we noticed how crowded the pools were and laid on the beach for a while to wait for everyone to leave.

 

 

We finally made our way over to the pools and it was the most awesome, crazy, beautiful thing ever! The first pool was a giant rectangle that looked like a real pool because it was on the rocks. The second pool was on the edge of a cliff! Since the waves were particularly big in Laguna that day, they crashed against the rocks and create a huge spray over the end of the pool.

 

 

I decided I absolutely had to jump in since nobody else was (and for an artsy Instagram picture hehe). The water was freezing, but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! There were even steps into the pool and you could walk around the edge and watch the waves crash. Definitely watch the tides as the waves can sometimes hit the circular pool pretty hard!

 

 

We even met some people from Huntington that were visiting the pools the same day. Shows what a small world it is! Once it was time to head home, we climbed back over the rocks and through the cave again. Then we got to the part I had been dreading…those damn stairs! We heard people saying things like “Alright, this is our fourth and final time up these steps” I figured I would be totally fine. Hey if they can do it four times, I can do it once right? So, so wrong. We stopped twice on the way up the 250 stairs but finally made it all the way to the top! Thank goodness I still had water left after that! It wasn’t until the next day that my calves started burning. Yowzaaaa.

I am absolutely coming back to this amazing beach! Even though summer is around the corner, I’ll be back on a weekday to hopefully skip the crowds next time. So make sure you pick a good day, watch the tides, bring flip flops and explore everything!

We took a ton of pictures when we went, so I’ve posted my favorites below. Enjoy!! 🙂

 

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More more of my 1000 Steps Beach series, check out Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4!

Happy Beaching!