Looking for a fun outdoor way to spend the day in the La Jolla area? Well, you could probably just show up and wing it because it’s frankly a beautiful and fun area with so much to offer. If you need a little inspo, though, here’s what how we spent our vacay day dedicated to the La Jolla/Torrey Pines area.
We were staying in Oceanside. After breakfast at home we hit the road and headed south to Torrey Pines State Reserve. A quick research for an appropriate hike involving littles lead us to Guy Fleming Trail. This is a 0.8 mile loop trail with stunning ocean views and glorious wildflowers. This was easy enough for our four year old to manage.
We were ready to refuel so we drove into La Jolla and found our way to Puesto. We had some delicious hand made tacos, margaritas and guac! It was a much needed reset.
We walked from Puesto to La Jolla cove. With kids (or without) this is a must see if you’re visiting the San Diego area. This is a beautiful cove surrounded by cliffs. The cove is home to much marine life including the adorable sea lions and seals. It’s pretty precious to observe the adorable animals sun bathing, communicating with each other and taking dips in the ocean. Our kids loved it.
The southern California coast also has many sea caves. La Jolla is a great place to book at kayak tour to see them from the ocean.
There is one sea cave, though, that you can experience without getting on a boat. Just around the cove there is The Cave Store, home to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave. There’s a man made tunnel down to experience the sea cave. It was a bit creepy heading down the dark passage way but we all enjoyed the view at the end.
We found our way to Bobboi for a sweet fix. This natural gelato place had a nice mix of traditional and unique flavors. I had pomegrante and lavendar flavors.
We were set to head back to O-side but the traffic was looking rough so we decided to find another nearby hike. Black’s beach was close and the hike looked short and ended on the beach…what could go wrong?
For starters this was a steep, winding trail down to the beach. The views were amazing but keeping three fearless littles safe was kind of daunting.
It’s hard to appreciate in these pictures but the beach is far and waaaaay down from where we are on the path. The people looked like little dots!
Our next surprise was to realize that Black’s is famous for being a nude beach! Haha! There were only a handful of bare bodies and all at a good distance so I don’t think our kids even noticed. The beach was breathtaking in the evening and we all had a blast frolicking in the surf and watching para-gliders.
I was definitely worried about the hike back. Kids had gotten wet and we had a few things to carry. Plus A’s legs are so little. How could he possibly climb all that way back up? Well, he didn’t. Rob carried him. And got himself wet in the process.
But the other two were troopers and scaled the incline faster than I thought. We took a quick second for a family pic near the top.
This was a great day in the La Jolla area. I’m confident any version of exploring in this area would be fun for adventurous families.
