Natural Bridges State Beach

We had a wonderful experience here. We did the Monarch trail where we saw many many monarchs. My favorite is the tide pool, we went there a bit earlier so missed the guided tour. Got the list from the visitor center and went looking for them in the tide pools. Amazing experience

This legendary Monarch sanctuary has fewer winged visitors than the "old days," but 7000 were waiting for us on a December morning. The riparian corridor meets the Pacific sand in full view of the Natural Bridge! It's easy hiking along boardwalks in the marshy areas...just a splendid, quiet day. To see the butterflies, come after the sun hits the eucalyptus grove... after 10 am. No dogs!

Just went for butterfly monarch migration. So cool to have the one side with the flutter of the monarchs and the other side a beach to watch sunset. Both were spectacular and I loved the spot.
As a warning they close bathrooms and up pretty quickly after sunset.

This has more a feel of a beach than a park. It’s great there is no entrance fee if you park at one of the many spaces along the road or the parking spot and don’t enter the gate. The beach is worth to spend a few hours, it doesn’t seem crowded and best is to bring a chair or towel along.

Nice beach, beautiful views. There are bathrooms on site. Parking is $10 for the day. There is a free smaller parking lot just before you get to the parking toll, but it's 20 minute parking only. It's a good spot if you just wanna enjoy the view and take some quick snapshots. We saw seagulls and their babies on the rocks, which was so cute! It is somewhat steep walking down to the beach, there aren't stairs. So that's something to be mindful of. There are also tide pools but you will need to do a little climbing to get to them. We saw lots of crabs and a starfish. Overall, I recommend this spot. I've been here twice and both times it wasn't crowded.