The day dawned overcast
and early morning cool, as most San Diego days do. Spending a couple of weeks
here at one of the many area U.S. Navy "resorts", I arose early for an outstanding
dining hall breakfast (no kidding, they're excellent). Having been to San Onofre
yesterday, I decided to get an early start and spend the day at one of my all
time favorite beaches, Black's Beach in La Jolla.
I arrived at the Glider Port parking lot (just off North Torrey Pines Road near
USD) and was directed by a Security person to park to the right of the entrance
road. She explained that there was a movie being filmed and the regular parking
lot beside the Glider Port was full of movie people cars, vans and camera trucks.
It was only 9:30 a.m. but there was a lot of activity at the top of the cliffs
at the glider facility. Several dozen people were milling around looking real
busy, real important, or neither. Observing all of this, I gathered up my backpack
loaded with beer and ice, gym bag with towels and stuff, and beach chair and headed
for the paved path which starts just south of the parking lot.
At the head of the path/trail, a San Diego motorcycle policeman stood ominously
guarding my progress. Fearing the beach would be closed because of the movie filming,
I approached him for the bad news. He offered a cheery "good morning", and opened
a map of Black's, indicating that the portion of the beach just north of the path
(that portion directly under the glider cliffs) was closed. He simply asked me
to avoid that area today and go anywhere south of the path (sometimes known as
the "city" side of the beach where anti-nudity prohibitions are sometimes enforced).
Get
the best rates for your naturist vacation right here. I negotiated the
path down. It's better described as a "goat path" because the paved portion ends
at the first turn and the rest of the way, being a limestone/dirt path, has seen
hard times due to the rains. Locals do a great job of keeping it up however, and
the top 2/3s is a fairly easy trail and set of handmade steps. The lower 1/3 is
rocky, steep, and is nearly washed out at the bottom. It's little more than a
rock lined gully at one point. But eventually walking onto the beach makes the
hike down worth it. The beach is gorgeous, unusually wide, with white sand stretching
for miles in both directions.
Sure enough, as the policeman had described, there was a huge roped off section
just to the north. Turning south, I observed about 30-40 people, mostly guys,
already there. I walked down about a quarter of a mile, just before the first
rocky outcrop, and set up my chair, spread out my towels and prepared for a day
in the sun. Over the next hour the group grew to a crowd of a couple of hundred,
about 3 to 1 men to women, and lots of clothed surfers. The surfers seem oblivious
to everybody around them. The two groups, nudists and surfers just sort of disregard
each other. Seems to work fine.
The movie filming started shortly thereafter with a helicopter flying from atop
the glider area cliffs about 1/2 mile out over the ocean with a guy dressed up
as an Indian dangling from a rope. What they were trying to portray, I haven't
a clue to this day. But all of us on the beach watched as they repeated the performance
a dozen times or so. They later moved south down the beach about a mile and repeated
the scenario from a cliff near one of the beautiful La Jolla homes high overlooking
the beach.
All in all, it was mildly interesting but would have been more so if we had any
idea as to what was going on. Around noon the entire movie proceedings came to
an end and the beach service/lifeguards took down the yellow caution tape and
returned Black's to the normal state. A lifeguard in a jeep with a P.A. system
drove up the southern side of the beach and invited everybody to relocate to the
north of the path. I moved chair and all with a parade of a couple hundred naked
people up the beach. The crowd had taken on an almost party attitude but nevertheless
there were a few "grumblers" about having to move. Oh well, paradise is sometimes
troubled.
In the afternoon, I decided to stretch my legs and walk as far north as I could.
I walked about 2+ miles to the end of Black's, where the rocks separate the nude
portion of the beach from the clothed portion of Torrey Pines State Beach. The
walk was along one of the prettiest beaches in California. There are huge 300
foot cliffs on one side, ocean on the other. The beach is wide, clean (maintained
by locals, rather than the beach service), and has a few lifeguards every 1/2
mile or so. The lifeguards also regularly patrol in a jeep, passing every 20-30
minutes. They do not tolerate any glass bottles or any "out of line" behavior.
In talking to several they seem real supportive of the nude beach goers and are
working to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all who visit their beach.
I passed
hundreds of people, most just sunbathing, wading/swimming, or just walking like
me. Some tourist guide books say the far north portion of the beach is for gays,
but I've not seen anything that would indicated one way or the other. There was
absolutely no behavior that you wouldn't see on any public beach anywhere. My
walk took about an hour as I was in no hurry and stopped a time or two to chat
with folks. A cold beer or two when I got back was sure good.
My day has been a wonderful one and my all over tan is coming along quite nicely.
I finally decided to call it a day about 5'ish, and packed up and made my way
to the path. The climb/hike up is difficult and takes an average physically fit
person 15 minutes. All things considered, the beach, the people (regulars and
visitors like myself), the ocean, and even the movie making events of this day,
make Black's Beach one of my all time favorites when in Southern California. I
hope to visit again and again. Dave
Visit the Black's Beach Website 
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