La Jolla's Beach Stairs Reopen on Donations, Not a City Schedule

The concrete steps down to the water at Whale View Point, in the 400 block of Coast Boulevard, were paid for by Ellen Browning Scripps in the 1920s. They were scheduled to get their first real repair in a century over the past two weeks. Crews planned to work 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Oct. 14 through Wednesday, Oct. 28. While they worked, surfers and swimmers were sent to the stairs by the Surf Shack across from 333 Coast Blvd.

Bob Evans, a project volunteer and former president of La Jolla Parks & Beaches, described the old stairs to the San Diego Union-Tribune as "really crumbled, rough and eroded." He added, "I don't think there has been any maintenance or repair in the last 100 years."

Community donations paid for the repair, and a volunteer conservancy managed it on city land. That is how most of the shoreline between the Cove and the Children's Pool now gets fixed, and it explains why one staircase is getting new pavers while another, a few hundred yards south, has been chained off since early 2024.

How a 100-year-old staircase finally got on the schedule

The Whale View Point stairs fall inside the La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in spring 2024. The district covers about eight acres of coastal parkland, including La Jolla Cove, the Children's Pool, Casa de Mañana and the Red Roost and Red Rest cottages. At the ceremony celebrating the listing that November, volunteers said they were raising money to repair the stairs.

Once the money was in hand, the project went to the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy. The group uses a city right-of-entry permit so private donors and contractors can repair city land without restarting the approval process for each project. The repair itself is a careful one. Crews clear sand off the steps, put down a smoothing slurry, and glue precast concrete pavers onto the original treads. Landscape architect Jim Neri said the materials went through "several iterations with the city of San Diego," so they would look close to the original without copying it exactly.

The work took about two years of talk to get started. At the La Jolla Parks & Beaches meeting on Oct. 5, trustee Melinda Merryweather called it "a monumental accomplishment." She said getting "all the permissions, the right contractor and the money" took that long.

South Casa runs on the same model but has no money yet

Follow Coast Boulevard south to the Children's Pool lifeguard tower and you reach the South Casa Beach stairs. Storms damaged the bottom of the stairway in early 2024, and the city chained it off.

The Conservancy is handling South Casa the same way it handled Whale View. Chair Brenda Fake told the same Oct. 5 meeting that the project already has a city-approved design. The Conservancy will pay for engineering and construction and manage contracting and permits. The city's role is "procedural support," which means helping prepare permits, coordinating department reviews and inspecting the construction.

What's missing is the money, which Fake called the "big hurdle." One anonymous donor has pledged up to $100,000. Fake told the Union-Tribune there's no exact cost estimate yet, but the group is working from "an estimate of $5 million based on other people's projects." The pledge covers about 2% of that figure. The design is done and no permit is holding it up. South Casa will reopen when someone pays for the repair.

The smaller fixes on the same stretch of coast

The same donation-funded model is behind the smaller repairs between Goldfish Point and the Surf Shack. According to the Conservancy's own updates and the Union-Tribune's coverage:

• Goldfish Point to La Jolla Cove white fence. A first prototype section of the restored wooden fence is finished. As of Oct. 1, the project was about $13,000 short of its goal, with a target of finishing by year-end. Days later, the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla offered $8,000 toward that gap.
• The belvedere and the Surf Shack. Proceeds from the BirdStock music festival gave $20,000 toward painting the outside of the coastal belvedere, the gazebo on the bluff, and the Whale View Point surf shack.
• Post-and-chain barriers north of Whale View Point. The Conservancy reports these are finished.
• Coast Walk Trail. In September, crews reinforced spots where storm runoff crosses the trail and added rock-filled gabions. More storm protection is planned as money comes in. Two new dog-waste stations went in along the trail on Aug. 26.

The Conservancy's invitation-only "Cocktails at the Cove" fundraiser on Oct. 1 raised about $70,000 for projects like these. That's a meaningful amount for a fence or a coat of paint, but it's a small part of what South Casa is expected to cost. Anyone who wants to give can do so through lajollacoastalconservancy.org.

The closures no fundraiser can shorten

North of the Village, the biggest access changes this winter are controlled by public agencies, and community money has no say in their timing.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is in phase two of a utility overhaul run by California State Parks. Since Sept. 22, the reserve has been closed to pedestrians, cyclists and cars. That includes every trail, the Beach Trail Staircase, the Lodge and both upper parking lots. The work covers new utility lines, a new restroom, accessible parking and paths, and a rebuilt park road from the west parking lot to the reserve's south boundary. A Union-Tribune report says the construction is timed to avoid the breeding season of the California gnatcatcher, a protected bird that lives in the reserve. State Parks expects to reopen the reserve in March 2027.

Several areas stay open during the closure. Torrey Pines State Beach and the north and south beach parking lots are open. State Parks also lists the four Extension trails as open: Mar Scenic, DAR, Margaret Fleming Nature and Red Ridge Loop. If you hike in the reserve on weekends, the Extension is the closest place to keep doing it until spring. If you have a State Parks pass, it still works at every other state park.

Scripps Coastal Reserve, the bluff above Black's Beach at 9400 La Jolla Farms Road, has been gated for more than six years. UC San Diego closed the reserve during the pandemic in 2020. Since then it has opened only for docent-led tours and weekly maintenance. Restricting public access in the coastal zone requires approval from the California Coastal Commission. La Jolla's local news site lajolla.ca reports that UCSD again withdrew its access-plan application ahead of a scheduled hearing, then resubmitted it. UCSD says the reserve's tidepools and underwater areas remain open to the public.

Torrey Pines Road is the city's project. Crews are replacing the temporary concrete K-rail between Prospect Place and Coast Walk with about 420 feet of permanent metal guardrail. The job also includes new sidewalk and curb, utility relocation, repaving and restriping. The traffic plan the Union-Tribune reported on Sept. 24 called for a start on Oct. 6 and work Sunday through Thursday, 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. It also called for some overnight westbound lane closures and a northbound bike lane closure for the entire job. Later in the project, the sidewalk will close and walkers will use a protected route on the south side. The schedule runs through March 2027. If you ride a bike down the hill into the Village, plan on a detour all winter.

What's open, closed and coming up

The last row repeats every year. The City of San Diego closes the Children's Pool beach from Dec. 15 through May 15 for harbor seal pupping season. Nearby, the city's Point La Jolla page says Point La Jolla and Boomer Beach are closed year-round under a 2023 City Council action. That closure doesn't include the beach at La Jolla Cove.

From mid-December, then, the water between Goldfish Point and South Casa is reachable at the Cove, the Surf Shack stairs and the Whale View Point steps, once their repair wraps. The Children's Pool and South Casa will both be closed.

If you're thinking about what a home near Coast Boulevard, the Shores or Bird Rock is worth, Ben Crosby can put together a free home valuation that accounts for the coastal access around it. You can also look through more of the area on the La Jolla neighborhood page.