Cabrillo National Monument Adds Key Hiking Trail to Access Spectacular Tidepools

It just became a little easier to experience the natural treasures of the Cabrillo National Monument. The striking Southern California national park has unveiled the Oceanside Trail, which improves visitor access and increases its trail network by more than 20 percent. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the trail took place on April 24.

The Oceanside Trail connects the park's upper monument (the Kelp Forest and Whale Overlook) to the remarkable tidepools at the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and offers connecting routes to the nearby Bayside and Coastal Trails. Teeming with starfish, anemones, and crustaceans, these tidepools — also known as the rocky intertidal zone — are visited by more than 350,000 people every year. Previously, the only safe way to access this area was by vehicle, although many visitors were traversing down this steep, shoulder-less road on foot.

Funded by the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation in partnership with the National Park Foundation, the new trail features switchbacks down a hill that overlooks the Pacific and leads to the tidepools. It is outfitted with benches, wayfinding signs in braille, English, and Spanish, and interpretive and educational signs that will especially benefit the thousands of young students who visit the park each year. In addition, the half-mile trail provides views of the gray whale migration to Mexico in the winter.

This project wasn't expected to be completed for several more years, but thanks in part to funding by GRoW and other private donors, the Oceanside Trail can be explored now.