Access to Beacon’s Beach in Encinitas reopened as of Wednesday, May 22, in time for the Memorial Day holiday weekend after months of work to stabilize the bluff and repair the trail, city officials announced.
“The contractor has completed repairs to the trail and the trail is now open to the public,” the city stated in a notice. “Fencing will remain in place at the north end of the parking lot until contractors repair a hole under the sidewalk.”
Beacon’s Beach access had been closed after bluff movement was detected in an ongoing landslide, the city announced back in January.
The slide is historic in nature, meaning it is of natural origin and ongoing, according to the city. It had been the second time in nearly as many years that the slide has activated and required repairs.
“Landslides are a type of ‘mass wasting,’ which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity,” the U.S. Geological Survey explains on its landslide awareness website.
The northern portion of the slide started moving westward down the slope on Jan. 8.
In May 2022, the city noted that movement at the time was related to a large landslide that occurred during heavy winter storms in 1982-83, which damaged stairways at the site. Additional movement was observed in 1990.
