Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach in Malibu
Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach is much harder to say than the names of the individual beaches that make up this state park, El Matador, El Pescador, and La Piedra. These three beaches are some of the most photographed beaches along the entire California Coastline. Combining these separate beaches into one state park makes it a prized property.
This state beach is surrounded by pricey homes in Western Malibu. Years ago the state was wise enough to set aside three large parcels for parking lots and public beach accesses. A fee is collected for day-use parking, but that doesn’t stop the lots from filling up.
Bring a lunch, drinks, and sunblock for a full day at the beach. You might want sturdy shoes for the hike down to the beach as flip-flops could break on the paths down to the beach. Each parking lot has toilets, but it’s a quite a hike back up the stairway to the blufftop from the beach.
El Matador State Beach is the eastern access and is the most popular. Its parking lot is most likely of the three to be filled up on sunny days, especially in the summer months. This is a common spot for photo shoots and has rocks, arches, and hidden places to photograph and explore.
El Pescador State Beach is the western access. Like all the other south-facing beaches in this area, it gets direct sunlight in the middle of the day. El Pescador means “the fisherman” and you might see them casting a line into the surf here.
La Piedra State Beach is the central access and has less sand than the other two, but it’s still a wonderful beach in a quiet setting.
During low tides, it is possible to walk on the sand between each of the beaches in Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach. Doing this gets you to remote spots that few visitors ever see.
If you are visiting Malibu, Santa Monica, or even Los Angeles, it’s just a short drive up Pacific Coast Highway to get here. From Ventura it’s a short trip down PCH and from Thousand Oaks it is easy to get here via Highway 23 through the Santa Monica Mountains.
