I have been wanting to visit Abalone Cove Shoreline Park for a while, but after hearing an interesting review about the tough trail down from a best friend, I was a bit nervous to check this place out with Tuggy.
Luckily for us, it wasn’t that bad. Tuggy did just fine.
After reviewing this map, we chose this route down to the tide pools:
From the parking area, we opted to take the trail on the left (if you are facing the beach), which is Chapel View Trail. The trial heads downhill towards Beach School Trail, which is paved and ends at Sea Dahlia Trail. This trail is a rocky, and steep, but we soon found ourselves at the rocky beach. We kept to the left, crossing over a long stretch of rocks. Here, we saw a small waterfall. Having seen other waterfalls, this is nothing impressive but unexpected, to say the least. We continued on the sand towards Portuguese Point, where we saw the most amazing tide pools.
We saw a ton of starfish, and we even caught a good view of an octopus as it chased after a scurrying crab.
I had an awesome time checking out the tide pools, but sunset was fast approaching. Reluctantly, we headed back up Sea Dahlia Trail and this time, opted to take Olmstead Trail. This was a longer but smoother, uphill trail that ended up on Palos Verdes Drive. From there, we followed the road back to Beach School Trail and Chapel View Trail back to the parking lot. From any of these trails you get amazing views of the park, and in the distance Catalina.
I was very impressed, and can’t wait to go back and share this place with others.
tuggysmom
