Three Beach Cities in Southern California: San Clemente, Oceanside, & Carlsbad

Our Tesla Day Trip to three beach cities that are popular in Southern California; San Clemente State Beach, Oceanside Harbor, and South Carlsbad State Beach.

First Stop: San Clemente State Beach

San Clemente State Beach is at the far southern end of the City of San Clemente in South Orange County, California. The beach itself is a long, narrow beach at the base of a rather steep sandstone cliff. Road access in a parking lot is located at a spot where there is an opening in the cliff leading to the beach. The parking area is relatively small and when the surf is up it’s fairly crowded with surfers.

The State Park maintains a fairly large campground with 160 sites having fire rings and picnic tables. It’s a short walk from the campground down to the beach.

San Clemente State Beach is one of the beaches were grunion arrive to spawn during high tides, on certain nights of the month, during a two-hour window. Grunion like beaches that are quiet, with little or no artificial light, sandy and not too steep, and long and wide. Sometimes, they come up on the sand in the thousands, creating a blanket of slimy fish wiggling and flopping around. Each female lays 2,000 to 3,000 eggs. They have a short life – only about five years max – and get to be about six inches long. The females bury themselves up to the fins, deposit their eggs and the males deposit the milt right there. When the next wave comes by the grunion try to make their way back to the ocean. The eggs stay buried in the sand for 10 to 14 days and hatch on the next high tide, swimming out to sea. 

2023 grunion run dates can be found at the California Department of Fish and wildlife website. At the time of this writing, they didn’t have the 2023 schedule up but runs generally start in February, so you can check the CDF&W site for the expected dates.

Leaving San Clemente State Beach and heading south on I-5 we traveled through the coastal edge of Camp Pendleton, the major west coast training base for the US Marines. The Marines practice beach landings along the shoreline and their camps, equipment, tanks, and helicopters are almost always visible from the freeway as you pass by. In 1994 I was doing some environmental work on the base when a large group of recruits passed by, apparently near the end of one of their most difficult training events called the “Crucible”.  I was very much taken by the scene: dust clouded the air from hundreds of boots as they quickly passed; recruits carried heavy packs and equipment and lappeared tired but determined; Drill Sergeants seemingly very fresh and unaffected by the long march, sometimes even marching backwards while shouting orders and easily keeping up with the recruits. I remembered I had my camera in the car, a completely mechanical Mamiya RB 67 medium format camera with black and white film. This was a studio camera that with the lens I had on it weighed almost 5 pounds. The Marines were passing by fast, so I struggled to adjust the manual f-stops, focus, and shutter speed settings on the camera, then held it awkwardly to take three images. All my camera settings were wrong as I quickly found when I developed the film. The shutter speed was too slow and as the marines got closer the camera was out of focus leading to blurred images; all were so underexposed that it was difficult to make out any features on the film. Still, with a lot of dodging and burning in the darkroom, I found that one image captured the Marines in an almost timeless moment that for me was totally unexpected. 

I have taken over a hundred thousand photographs and I’m a true believer in one of the most famous quotes on how to take a great photograph, “f/8 and Be There”, credited to photographer Arthur “Weegee” Fellig.  An aperture of f/8 is kind of an average setting that might work at any time, but to me the most important factor is “Be There”:  you’ll never capture an image of Marines in a cloud of dust (either in or out of focus!) if you’re sitting at home!  Photography is another reason to get out and be Seeking More Than A Supercharger.

Second Stop: Oceanside Harbor

We stopped in Oceanside harbor for lunch and a walk around the harbor. Oceanside Harbor is quietly tucked away and easily missed by travelers on I-5.  As you drive into the harbor you’ll find rows of docked boats, see people gliding by on top of paddleboards, and the array of restaurants and shops, you quickly realize that you have stumbled upon a hidden gem. 

Oceanside Harbor is home to Harbor Village, a quaint New England-style destination, host to a variety of restaurants and retail shops. Just steps from the village are local vendors providing whale watching, boat rental, and SUP experiences. We had lunch at the Rockin’ Baja Lobster Coastal Cantina. At first, I was a little skeptical, because it seemed that most of the restaurants in the harbor were very busy. We shared chips and salsa; my wife had Queso Fundido and Mexican Style “Elote” Street Corn; and I had blackened fish tacos. We were both very pleased with our choices (perhaps the margaritas helped!).  Both meals were delicious.

While walking around the harbor we met a lobster fisherman who was unloading about 150 pounds of lobster from his boat. They were all fairly large and very beautiful. The lobster season runs from October through March and many of the lobster fisherman had already pulled up their lobster pots because of the heavy storms that we’ve had in early January. This fisherman had his lobster pots further out and he was still getting pretty good catches of lobsters. He said he unloaded the traps every three days. The lobsters in the picture at the top of this page are his lobsters and are only a part of the catch he was unloading when we met him. These lobsters were destined for restaurants in Laguna Beach, mostly for one restaurant, the Coyote Grill, a favorite of ours in south Laguna.

Third Stop: South Carlsbad State Beach

South Carlsbad State Beach is a three-mile-long beach on the waterfront of Carlsbad, California. Most of this state beach is next to South Carlsbad Campground that is between the sand and the asphalt of Carlsbad Boulevard (Highway 101).  At the south end of the campground the beach widens next to the entrance to Batiquitos Lagoon where free day-use parking can be found for access to the beach (near South Ponto Beach).  When we visited, much of the beach sand had been eroded during the winter storms of December and early January 2023. Even with the erosion the beach was still about 50 yards wide, but with many areas covered by a layer of pebbles. 

In 1996 Batiquitos Lagoon was reconnected to the ocean to reduce the natural filling with silt from creeks that flow into it. Encinitas Creek and San Marcos Creek flow into the upper reaches of the lagoon. The lagoon is now considered an ecological reserve and it’s managed by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. As a biologist I assisted with the monitoring of California Least Tern and Western Snowy Plover nesting sites and adjacent feeding areas in Batiquitos Lagoon.  The lagoon area includes several nesting sites for Least Tern and Snowy Plover. When nesting at the lagoon the Least Terns regularly fly over Highway 101 and South Carlsbad State Beach on their way to feeding areas in the ocean adjacent to the beach. If you are a birder, the best time to visit and see Least Tern is April to July.

EV Trivia for our Road Trip: Round Trip= 96 miles, Energy Use= 24 kWh, Efficiency= 4.0 mi/kWh. Our day trip didn’t require any charging along the way, but there is a Supercharger with 16 ports near the intersection of I-5 and Palomar Airport Road, about 2 miles north of Batiquitos Lagoon.  

Please Contact Us and let us know if there is a destination that you think we should visit and we’ll try to make plans.