ENCINITASENCINITAS — This week’s rainy weather doesn’t appear to have caused any significant harm to the landslide-prone Beacon’s Beach access trail, but the trail will remain closed for now.
Another storm is due to arrive early next week, and city officials say they plan to continue monitoring the hillside’s condition before making any decisions about when to reopen the popular dirt pathway.
“Luckily, this storm wasn’t too bad,” Encinitas Assistant City Manager Jennifer Campbell told the City Council on Wednesday as she gave a status report on the bluff’s condition.
However, she said, it’s apparent that some soil movement still is occurring in the area and any landslide activity could cause further damage to the trail.
In an emergency move last month, Encinitas closed the trail, which runs in a switch-back fashion from the bluff top on Neptune Avenue down to the beach. Record-setting, winter storms had reactivated an existing landslide problem, causing part of the trail to collapse and forcing the closure, city officials said at the time.
In the weeks since, Encinitas has experienced additional rainstorms. The city received close to an inch of rain during a three-day period this week, the National Weather Service reported. And, there’s a “good chance” for more rain by early Monday, though the rainfall-per-hour rate from this new storm may not be very high, the weather service’s Thursday’s morning forecast indicated.
Beacon’s Beach bluff has historically been prone to landslides, and this is the second trail closure in two years. In 2022, the access trail was closed for several months after a landslide occurred. The city has estimated it spent about $50,000 on that trail repair work, including adding steps and several small walls.
Encinitas is pursuing a project to relocate the small parking lot at the top of the bluff. Earlier this month, the state Coastal Commission backed the city’s proposal, saying it was an unfortunate, but necessary step, given the landslide situation.
Plans call for relocating the parking lot landward by about 10 feet from its current spot, and seeding the space between the new lot and the bluff edge with native plants. The relocation will result in the loss of 11 of the lot’s 26 spaces.
