Midway between Newport and Laguna Beaches, amidst the ever-encroaching Orange County sprawl, Crystal Cove State Park (daily dawn–dusk; $6 per car) protects one of Southern California’s finest chunks of coastline. With three miles of sandy beaches and chaparral-covered bluff lined by well-marked walking trails, it’s a fine place to enjoy the shoreline without the commercial trappings. Originally home to Native Americans, the land here was later part of Mission San Juan Capistrano and, until 1979 when the state bought it, the massive Irvine Ranch, which once covered most of Orange County.
The main parking area for Crystal Cove is at Reef Point (daily dawn–dusk; $10 per car; 949/494-3539) near the south end of the park, where there are bathrooms and showers plus excellent tidepools, a fine beach, and a well-preserved collection of 1920s beach cottages, where you can stay overnight for $50–150. (The cottages were slated to be “developed” into an upscale resort by the creators of Big Sur’s Post Ranch Inn, but local preservationists managed to keep the place in public hands). There is also a large section inland from Hwy-1, through the oakland glade of El Moro Canyon, which gives a vivid sense of Orange County’s rapidly vanishing natural landscape.
