Ben A.
Yelp
After our Big Sur reservations were canceled due to COVID (aside: they opened restaurants but cancelled CAMPING? What kind of horse manure is that?) we opted to Air B&B a house in San Diego and try to salvage a vacation. The house is a whole other review... but suffice to say our day at "Children's Pool" was a novelty at best.
Heading down on a Friday helped a little bit with parking-- we actually found a couple of 2 Hour spots just down the street. Thanks to the Mayor of SD for directing local parking enforcement to lighten up, because we had occasion to stay a little longer than posted.
A short walk to this diminutive stretch of imported sand just behind a somewhat ugly concrete break wall, Children's Pool is one of the small shore access spots here in La Jolla proper at the base of the cliffs.
It is well-known for being a harbor seal and sea lion haul out area, and it has the stank to prove it; it seems the pinnipeds don't miss an opportunity to vacate their bowels on the rocks, and the stench is palpable. Considering this factoid, Children's Pool has one of the highest bacteria counts of any CA beach, regularly earning F scores from water quality organizations.
All that aside, this seems to be a big draw. There's a big lifeguard station on the bluff above, and they bark orders at people for most of your stay:
"Get away from that nesting seagull!"
"Kayaker, stay outside the break!"
"Guys, you can't launch your kayak here!"
The last one was classic SD lifeguard awesomeness, as they watched two divers set up their inflatable, load all their gear, walk it down to the water, and then and ONLY THEN told them they were prohibited from launching. Awesome move.
Baby seagulls and baby humans and quite a few people trying to find something to do here. You can't really swim, there's no waves, and the water gets deep in a hurry. Maybe you can take a couple of photos here? To send to Aunt Gertrude in Greenfield, IN?
I idly walked the short beach along the tide line looking for sea glass and a few shells. Found a baby abalone she'll and a few decent pieces of glass, so not a total waste of time. Thought about walking through the cave on the north end, but wasn't motivated I guess.
It's sandy. There's ocean there. But this is not a beach.