San Onofre State Beach, is a state park located in San Diego County, California, USA.
Gov. Ronald Reagan established San Onofre State Beach in 1971. It has become one of the five most-visited state parks in California, hosting swimmers, campers, kayakers, birders, fishermen, off-duty Marines, bicyclists, sunbathers, and surfers. This southern California state park contains seven archaeological sites, including a Juaneño Indian village. Seven threatened or endangered species live within the park, and it protects significant portions of San Mateo Creek, one of the last relatively unspoiled watersheds in Southern California.
In establishing the state park at San Onofre, Reagan said, one of "the greatest legacies we can leave to future generations is the heritage of our land… But unless we can preserve and protect the unspoiled areas which God has given us, we will have nothing to leave them."
San Onofre State Beach,features 3.5 miles (6 km) of sandy beaches with six access trails cut into the bluff above.
The campground is along the old U.S. Route 101 adjacent to the sandstone bluffs. The beach is popular with swimmers and surfers. San Onofre includes San Onofre Surf Beach, a day use facility; San Mateo campground and day use facility; and a nature trail that starts at San Mateo Canyon and leads to San Mateo State Preserve/Trestles Beach. Some interest group feel the San Mateo campground is under threat by the construction of the 241 Tollroad Extension, even though no design plans call for the removal or destruction of the campgrounds. There is an effort under way to prevent its destruction.
Located between San Onofre SB and San Onfore Surf Beach is San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) provides nearly 20-percent of the power to more than 15 million people in Southern California. (State of California)
The park includes a marshy area where San Mateo Creek meets the shoreline and Trestles Beach, a well-known California surfing site. Whales, dolphins and sea lions can be seen offshore from time to time. The park’s coastal terrace is chaparral-covered. (State of California)
San Onofre has several surf breaks on its 3½ miles (5½ km) of coast, ranging from the beginner’s gentle breaking waves, long sandy beaches and little social stigma, to one of the premiere surf breaks (trestles) in the United States.
Surfers began surfing at San Onofre before the 1940s using redwood surfboards, including notables Lorrin "Whitey" Harrison, Don Okey, Al Dowden, Tom Wilson, and Bob Simmons. A surfing and fishing camp had been there since the 1920s, before the land was taken by the U.S. government to establish Camp Pendleton, a U.S. Marine training camp during World War II.
The beach exemplifies the surfing lifestyle in California because of its culture and pace. Summer days and many weekend surfers and non-surfers riddle the beach playing volleyball, road bocce ball, telling stories, bar-b-queing, bathing in the sun, resting under the iconistic grass huts, or simply surfing their long boards, short boards, or body boards in patient wait of the next slow lazy roller to arrive for the masses.
Graphic sourced with Ocbeachinfo.com
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