Crystal Cove State Park and other Anaheim, CA Off The Beaten Path Tips

We set out one afternoon along Harbour Blvd, heading for Huntington Beach. Somehow... we ended up in Newport! We eventually saw the signs leading to Crystal Cove State Park and we decided to pull in here. We paid our $10 entry fee (we were in an RV, I'm not sure if it's less for a car) and headed towards one of the parking lots shown on the map.

As we left the parking lot and rounded the building which houses the bathrooms, we were rewarded with an amazing view of the ocean. We hiked down the hill and found ourselves on a beautiful beach with very few people on it. The views were breathtaking.

This beach is completely undeveloped, there are no restaurants or stores along it. We walked down the beach and found tide pools in the rocks at one end. Our kids were fascinated with the variety of crabs and other sea creatures that we found here.

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Huntington Beach is very easy to get to from Disneyland. You can go south on Harbour and then take Pacific Coast Hwy #1 to the west. OR it's even easier (in my opinion) to get there if you first go west from Harbour to Beach Blvd. Then go south on Beach and the road will take you right into the beach parking lot.

You have to pay for parking (tell me somewhere you DON'T have to pay for parking in LA! lol), I think we paid $10 for the day.

There are fire pits along the beach where you can have a weiner-roast and bonfire, if you can get one before they're all taken. You can also walk down to the pier and walk all the way out to the end of it. (The end of the pier is closed in the winter.)

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