Secret caves at Cabrillo National Monument

 

I have been trying to get to Cabrillo National Monument for the last two years but couldn’t interest the boys. After much internet research, I finally found a compelling reason – a secret cave! We did some research and found a day with extra low tide at a reasonable hour and made the plan to drive the hour down to check things out…

We climbed down from the upper level parking lot and then headed north rather than south along the coast line in search of the cave.

Thanks to the very detailed instructions from www.Californiathroughmylens.com we knew not to get suckered in by the first cave we saw but to continue on in search of a tiny slot on the far side of a cove…

The cove on the outside of the cave is pretty cool and we got to see a number of seals frolicking around.

Once you go through the slot you climb down into an opening that has a large skylight above and two entry/exit paths for the water. At low enough tide, and with a willingness to get a little wet, you can wander through the northern opening to check out a whole pod of seals out sunning themselves on a large flat rock.

We made the most of the visit and went to check out the southern area of sea cliffs and tidal pools.

With all the rocks laying around we had an inukshuk building contest (math, physics, architecture…???) as this was a school day.

We had fun attempting to catch the rock crabs that were hiding in the horizontal slots in the rocks – they move fast!

No day at the beach is complete without playing with the Sea Anenomes… glad we got outside and explore this national monument. Totally worth the drive from North County San Diego.