Another post from the very beginning of my coastal hike. June 2008 and we were visiting Southern California for The American Library Association and Disneyland. With those to occupy wife and grandson, I was off again to the coast to complete the two part hike I'd begun the day before.
June 26, 2008
Huntington Beach to Balboa Beach
After driving in from Anaheim where we were visiting Disneyland, I found long term parking in downtown Huntington Beach. I started south from the Huntington Beach pier. In town the trail runs past a vast Hyatt Regency Resort (laid back Surf City indeed!) and an equally huge, albeit more vertical, power station. The trail follows a paved promenade south as far as the Santa Ana River.
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| No camping out in your woody these days. |
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| Not exactly scenic but definitely memorable. |
I crossed the Santa Ana River on the Highway 1 bridge. The trail then follows the Santa Ana River County Beach to the Newport Beach Pier. At Newport Beach I bought batteries for the camera, then continued south to Balboa Beach Pier. Much of the time the trail runs along a paved sidewalk past various condos, apartments, cottages and rentals. These Southern California beaches are perfect for tanning, volleyball and surfing. They make for pretty dull walking: miles and miles of houses on one side, flat sand and sea on the other. Oh for a cliff, a precipice, a sea stack!
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| The mighty Santa Ana courses (oozes?) to the sea. |
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| It stretches like this for miles. |
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| But if the scenery were more exciting, could you do this? |
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| Or this? |
From Balboa pier I walked inland to catch a ferry to Balboa Island. The quaint main street (Maritime) leads to a bridge to the mainland. There I climbed a steep hill to Highway 1 and caught a bus back to Huntington Beach. With mostly paved trails the going was much easier than the day before. (The drive back to Anaheim was something else, unfortunately. I got thoroughly lost and, for good measure I got caught in a colossal traffic jam. 2 hours 15 minutes to travel an official 8 miles.)
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| Newport Beach. Typical Southern California fauna and their habitat. |
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| Arriving at Balboa Island by ferry. |
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| Bridge to the mainland. All uphill from here to the bus back to Huntington Beach. |
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