On May 2, 2022, there was a bluff collapse at Beacon’s Beach in Encinitas, forcing the emergency closure of the beach access trail and parking lot. As the Beacon’s trail is on an active landslide area, the areas that collapsed were directly predicted by the City’s scientific geotechnical reports at least as early as 2003.
Today’s bluff collapse underlines the importance of planning for the future by ensuring safe beach access that is not in an active landslide area. If additional access to Beacon’s beach access had been provided by a staircase, or if the Beacons parking lot had been moved, as Surfrider San Diego advocated in previous years, today’s temporary Beacons closure may have been avoided.
Unfortunately, local opposition in 2018 prevented the parking reconfiguration and stairway construction. It’s been 4 years since, and today it’s even clearer that doing nothing was the wrong thing to do.
Let’s listen to the scientific reports and prioritize safe Beacons beach access for future generations.
Surfrider San Diego has been advocating for safe beach access at Beacons for years. Here are some of our previous blogs on beach access at Beacons:
- July 2014 – Surfrider issues position statement on erosion at Beacon’s beach
- March 2017 – Position statement + comment letter re: our concerns over proposed armoring solution to stabilize Beacon’s
- March 2018 – Beacon’s saved from a defacto seawall
- July 2018 – Letter to City of Encinitas in support of staircase and parking lot reconfiguration due to imminent bluff failure
- July 2018 – Beacons: The Real Story
- September 2018 – Protecting Beacon’s Beach for this and future generations
- December 2018 – Letter to Encinitas underscoring support for staircase and parking lot reconfiguration + commentary on local opposition
- November 2021 – After Decades of Uncertainty, Beacons Needs a Fix
- December 2021 – The Battle for Beacon’s Beach (Outside Magazine)
Aerial footage showing where collapse occurred on the switchback access trail. Source + story : ABC7 San Diego