Finally our marine safety dept will guard the beaches in South Laguna, and public works will assess needed improvements and day-to-day maintenance of trails and stairways from Coast Highway because now the City owns the beaches and access ways to the beaches of South Laguna.
I like Aliso Beach and Canyon because it has the only cafe on the sand, the Lost Pier Cafe. Fourteen hundred feet east, beyond Aliso Beaches handy parking lot, is the Ranch, complete with its deck seating and inside restaurant with exceptional views of Aliso Canyon, the nine-hole golf course and hotel, which has a great pool and jacuzzi. The Ranch even has a store.
If you are at Aliso Beach and look southeast, up on top of the hill, 400 feet high, sits the Richard Halliburton house built in the late 1930’s. The three-bedroom house was designed and built by William Alexander. A friend and lover, secretary and ghostwriter Paul Mooney shared the house with Halliburton, who traveled the earth in the 1920’s and 1930’s writing books, articles and giving lectures about his world travels.
I like West St., the international LGBTQ-friendly beach which is adjacent to Camels Point Drive public access way. It has a lifeguard tower in the summer, volleyball courts, restrooms and some of Laguna’s largest expanses of sand. The surf along these beaches is considered a shore break that crashed down and caused me to get a dislocated arm years ago. Be careful.
Thousand Steps is my third favorite beach. Its isolation is what I think people like, but the lack of parking and popularity is a nightmare for nearby residents. It is sometimes called Ninth Street Beach, and the next beach south is famous for summer sunbathing.
Roger Carter, Laguna Beach
