Salt Creek Beach

Salt Creek Beach Park is a popular Orange County park located in Dana Point, California. This wide sandy beach is directly below the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel beach resort, the Ritz Cove gated development, and the Monarch Beach Golf Links golf course.

Families are drawn to this beach for its ample sand, kid-friendly boogie boarding waves, and lifeguards. During low tides, children and adults will enjoy the tidepools that are exposed at the point south of the beach. A café called Youngs Beach Shack has tasty food, smoothies and drinks and is just above Salt Creek Beach.

Salt Creek flows through the beach at times on the north end of the beach and beyond the creek you’ll see the Monarch Bay Beach Club (one of California’s private beaches you can get to).

Salt Creek Beach Park is a large grass park with picnic tables and walking paths going in all directions. Benches along the path and the picnic tables are comfortable places to be for whale watching in the winter months. Almost any time of year the sunsets can be fabulous from just about anywhere this sloping park.

To get to Salt Creek Beach, turn off Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) onto Ritz-Carlton Drive and park in the large public parking lot that this road loops around. At the center of the lot there is a pedestrian underpass and trail that leads down to the park and the beach below that. It’s a long walk and on busy days there will be a shuttle for rides back up the hill ($1). Hours for the park and the beach are 5am to midnight every day.

The southern part of Salt Creek Beach (past the Ritz-Carlton) is Dana Strand Beach below the Dana Strand housing development (near the Dana Point Headlands).

Address

11 Ritz Carlton Dr
Dana Point, CA 92629

Phone

949-923-2280

Park Name

Salt Creek Beach Park

Owner

County Beach

Pet Details

Dogs not allowed on the beach, but ok in the park

Fees

Fees for parking

Activities

Surfing, Bodyboarding, Bodysurfing, Swimming, Beach Walking, Basketball, Sunbathing, Picnicking, Tidepooling, Whale Watching, Fishing, Walking

Amenities

Grass Park, Picnic Tables, BBQs, Restrooms, Showers, Concessions, Rentals, Tide Pools, Basketball Court, ADA Access

Links

Water Quality
Water Temps
Tide Chart
Web Cam
Surf Report