Thursday, October 9, 2014

A Day at the Dog Beach: Leo Carrillo State Park

Believe it or not, dog friendly beaches in the Los Angeles area can be a little hard to come by. While the California coast is basically one giant beach, there are really only two spots to check out if you want to soak up the sun with your pup. As Paddy has never been to the beach before, you can imagine that this was at the top of our "things to do" list, and thus we headed to Leo Carrillo State Park on a recent sunny weekend.


Situated about a 35-40 minute drive North of Santa Monica along the Pacific Coast Highway, Leo Carrillo State Park is 1.5 miles of beautiful California coast. After paying entrance/parking, head to the 2nd parking lot along the beach road for dog-on-leash beach time! (Yep, sadly, there was no off-leash fun to be had, but in many ways felt like this was for the best/safer.)

Despite the large number of people (and dogs), we were impressed at how clean the beach was; everyone was doing a nice job of picking up after themselves and their pooches. LOTS and LOTS of dogs - big dogs, small dogs, fluffy dogs... they were all there and having an awesome time. In fact, almost everyone we saw at this part of the beach had a dog in tow. The beach is by no means huge (in fact it's definitely narrow), but there was more than enough space for everyone to lie out, play in the water, etc.


Though Paddy was not super keen about the ocean, she had a great time playing in the sand and meeting some of the local dog pack.

Location: 35000 Pacific Coast Highway
Details: Dogs on leashes are welcome NORTH of Tower 3 (head to the 2nd parking lot)
Cost: Parking was less than $15 which is a steal, especially if you're planning on spending all day at the beach!
Amenities: There are public bathrooms, but we did not see any places to purchase water, etc. so make sure to bring everything with you! There were a lot of folks BBQing and tail-gating, so check out the website for details as to what's approved.

See you at the beach!

 

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