Pirate’s Cove Beach/Corona del Mar

For Mother’s Day, my family let me decide where I wanted to go…and of course I wanted to explore a beach! This one had rocks to climb, a cave, and beautiful views.  We had been nearby several times before…at Roger’s Garden, Sherman’s Garden and Library, and Fashion Island, but we never explored THIS particular beach and I’m glad we finally did!

Pirates Cove Beach is in Corona del Mar (see map here). We saw gorgeous views from the top (Lookout Point on Ocean Blvd, amongst the fancy beautiful homes) but decided to pay for parking below at the main lot because we saw the big flight of stairs. Our kids could probably climb down with no problems, but I wanted them to save their energy for some rock climbing! 🙂

 

Above is our view from the main parking lot to the right as we entered. We saw interesting rock formations right away. My kids and I could not resist and climbed it with excitement. We might have gone 30 feet up when we started seeing the beautiful ocean views. A few of the areas were a bit steep and slippery so watch your step, but it was well worth it.

To get down, we had a bit more rock scrambling to do, and then a very short flight of stairs. Then we arrived at this beautiful cove. In the photo above, to the right, one can see the cave, and a beautiful home perched right on the cliff.

We made a beeline for the cave and explored it…

As we entered, the entrance got smaller, and I ducked my head down to see how far it went. My kids ran in without much trouble. There were some orange peels in there so people were here earlier. To my right was a small space enclosed by rocks with a circular ‘window’ like view towards the beach. It would’ve been perfect to hide out here but I could smell old urine in the area, so we left. Time to play in the waves!

The photo above is my view looking out of the cave. You could see the small flight of stairs we climbed down and the cliff above that we climbed to get here.

There were other ‘caves’ as well along the beach and people were sitting in it to get away from the sun. What a perfect place to hang out and watch the waves!

But our favorite place was this little wall made from stacked rocks and overlook next to it. This area was to the left of the small flight of stairs coming down from the rocks. The kids played in the sand while we enjoyed the views.

Time flew by quickly. Before we knew it, suppertime was upon us and it was getting a bit chilly. So we climbed back up the rocks and headed for the parking lot. Here were some more views of the rocks and beach views before we left.

I’m so glad we got to explore this beautiful beach! It made for a relaxing and fun Mother’s Day outing!

Thanks for reading! 🙂