Picnic
Beach, LagunaYou can go crazy trying to decide on a place to dive in Orange County. Narrow it down to Laguna Beach and you can get dizzy. How do you decide with so many beautiful spots to chose from? One of my favorite gauges is the facilities. Add easy access, parking, and a place to park family members for a barbecue and the choice is easy - Picnic Beach.
Located off Pacific Coast Highway at Myrtle and Cliff Drive, there is ample parking (though in the summer months that is true only early in the a.m.) and a paved path that takes you directly from your car to the center of the cove. By now most divers have their gear on wheels, and you can wheel everything down to the beach via a paved ramp and set up a dive staging area on the wide beach. If you chose to dress-in at your car and walk the path, it is a fairly easy and not too steep walk.
The protected cove makes for an easy and usually uneventful entry and exit, although you may want to watch for rocks in the center of the cove in the surf zone. Snorkeling out, you'll encounter large patch reefs just past the surf zone in about 10 feet of water. This is an excellent area for a casual day of just snorkeling. There is enough life growing on these little reefs to keep you occupied for a dive, but continue moving to deeper water for even more interesting sights.
As you cruise the bottom, you'll encounter three rocky ridges
reaching up out of the sand bottom each holding different encounters.
They run approximately parallel to each other and the shore. You'll
find tall ridges creating a mini-wall environment, reaching from 35
feet to within 10 feet of the surface. Golden gorgonian grow
abundantly&emdash;in some cases completely covering the rocky
surface. Pink, giant-spined and brittle stars are everywhere.
Marine life here is abundant and colorful. Garibaldi, of course, are on every ridge and in-between. Other bountiful and colorful varieties of fish on these reefs include senoritas, opaleye, and blue-banded gobys. Attached to the rocks are green aggregating anemones and large gray-colored moon sponges. Crawling about are giant keyhole limpets, Kellet's welk, wavy turbans, and flashy Spanish shawl nudibranchs.
Barred sand bass are huge and unusually friendly. This are normally a very shy fish. We encountered the sand bass circling one ridge about 60 yards from shore. As we approached they all seemed to swim over to us as if to greet us. As we moved out to the next ridge they followed. They stayed with us for most of the return to shore, too, following just a few feet from our fins. And no, we did not have any food or game with us, and we did not break up urchins to feed them.
We encountered the final ridge about 100 yards from shore. It had what appeared to be a cave on the seaward side. But if you got down really low and peered into it, you could see all the way through. It was a tunnel passing completely under a reef some 30 feet wide! The bottom here is in 36 feet of water. The openings on both sides are very narrow, but opens up into a bigger space under the reef. Do not enter this little opening, the sand shifting in and out and the surge makes it a potentially dangerous place to be.
Lobster was seen everywhere a rocky crevice could be found for them to sleep in. It was interesting to see so many rock scallops under the ledges. The entire area is a marine preserve. Hunting is not welcome and sightseers should take nothing but pictures. Though an interesting point to make is the abundance of lobster traps all over the reefs--No hunting, huh?
There is little or no kelp, but that can quickly change from season to season. Visibility typically ranges from 15 to 25 feet and is known to reach up to 40 feet in the winter months.
The park has excellent picnic facilities (hence the beach's name), and restrooms are located a few steps north of the top of the path to the beach. At the foot of the path is a single freshwater shower. Should it be too crowded or you want to make consecutive dives, try Rocky Beach directly down the coast. Other good alternate dive sites include Diver's, Fisherman's and Shaw's Coves to the North.
Location: Located off Pacific Coast Highway at Myrtle and Cliff Drive.
Access and Entry: Paved path from street parking. Protected, easy sand beach entry.
Skill Level: All.
Depths: To 40 feet.
Snorkeling: Very good over shallow reefs in 10-15 feet of water.
Photography: Good for both macro and wide-angle.
Hunting: Take nothing this is a marine preserve.
Facilities: Restrooms, shower on beach, metered parking on street, dive store (Laguna Sea Sports) just a few blocks away on Coast Hwy.
Conditions: (949) 494-6573
