For those familiar with west coast nude beaches, last year we lost one of the best, Trail #6 at San Onofre Beach. San Onofre is a state parks beach on the border between San Diego and Orange counties. The director of California state parks system, a woman by the name of Ruth Coleman that is dead ringer match for Nurse Ratchet in the movie One Flew Over’s the Cuckoo’s Nest, got a bug up her but and went on a mission to shut down nude use. Because it was a policy change, an injunctive lawsuit was filed preventing her from shutting it down through claiming she had to first hold public hearings. The lower court agreed. However, the appellate court reversed the lower court’s ruling, and Nurse Ratchet then began to have her minions issue tickets to anyone caught nude. On a side note, because this was a popular beach, revenue generated by the $10/day use fee was lost, and given our state’s budget crises, park rangers have been laid off due to the lack of funds. But I digress…
Today I returned to San Onofre. I wanted to witness first hand what it is now like as it was a beautiful sunny Saturday in July, a day that in years past would have so many there at the nude beach parking would have been a problem. Today, the parking lot at Trail 6 was at best about half full. I descended down to the beach to find that there was a small crowd where the nude beach once was, but all were clothed.
However, I walked past the beach to the beach that is owned by the federal government as is part of the Camp Pendelton Marine Base. Sure enough, there were nudists there. However, none close to the numbers as year’s past. I walked for about a mile deep into Camp Pendelton and counted a total of 73 people. Of this, 15 were women and of them 10 were nude. Of the remaining 58 men, all but 4 were completely nude. However, it was skewed because the last half has always been, and still is, a beach for gay men and was exclusively male. In the heterosexual area it was about one women per three guys, which is not bad as I’ve seen much worse. During a warm sunny weekday, expect the same ratio, but only about 1/4th the people.
It should be noted that from time to time, the marine camp commander has marines raid their beach and order everyone off. However, they have never arrested anyone and do not have the authority to issue citations. The parks service does not have jurisdiction on the federal land, so they don’t patrol it. Hence, if the marines aren’t there, it is still a good spot for someone to lay out and enjoy nature in the nude.
But given the narrow layout and very rocky sand, this is no longer a beach with any type of social activity, and if you’re into watching other nudists, or being watched yourself, you’ll be disappointed. It is better to drive further south another 45 minutes and go to Blacks Beach, which is still heavily used by nudist with several hundred found on a day like today.
