Pappy’s Point Sea Caves ♦

January 10, 2018 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → San Diego Area → San Diego Coast → Pappy’s Point Sea Caves

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Sunset Cliffs, central coastal San Diego

Time Required: 1-2 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Best/easiest access will be when the tides are very low (0 to negative low tide – you can check tide tables here), and when the seas are calm (0-3 feet – you can check the wave/surf report here) – though if the tide is low enough, the wave height is less of a factor. You should be able to stay completely dry at low to negative tide. Scramble down a use trail on the south side of the parking lot (the second parking lot if you’re heading south on Sunset Cliffs Blvd), where there’s a rope to aid in your ascent/descent. Highly recommend wearing shoes; going barefoot will just make you really slow and produce a high likelihood of minor injury in the form of cuts and stubbed toes. Headlamps/flashlights are necessary!

What’s Nearby?: Balboa Park Archery Range, Ruby E Wreck Dive, Sunset Cliffs Sea Caves

*Please note that this post does not include the highly scenic Big Blowhole Cave – this cave is covered under the Sunset Cliffs Sea Caves post.

These sea caves are often included with the nearby Sunset Cliffs Sea Caves, but we’re discussing them separately since the experience is pretty different and they’re covered under separate survey maps (thanks to ropewiki, you can access the Pappy’s Point map here). You can easily combine Pappy’s Point and Sunset Cliffs Caves into one outing if the tides are in your favor. Many people have heard about the “Smuggler’s Cave” or “Rum Runner’s Cave” at Sunset Cliffs, but few people are intrepid enough to dare the neighboring “Sea Sewer” – or even know it exists.

The Smuggler’s Cave deserves its reputation as being a very cool place – it features two large entrances connected by an elevated narrow passageway through the rock – concrete stairways provide access to the passageway, which has a couple of minor off-shoots and one longer passageway at sea level. There are a couple of places where you could easily fall into the water-filled passageway, which would be pretty gross since it’s rather stagnant down there – you definitely want to bring light sources to avoid this happening. The cave system has obviously been enhanced (in addition to the concrete stairways, the main passageway has been enlarged) and most people claim that it was used during prohibition to smuggle alcohol (one of the minor side passages used to lead to the surface and has since been filled in/covered over). Looking at the survey map, it’s easy to imagine how this could have been accomplished – small boats could have sailed up the lower water-filled passage and make-shift pulley systems could have been rigged to lift shipments from the boats through one of the openings in the upper passage (one of the openings even has a wooden beam across it which could easily have been used for such a purpose). The shipments could then have been walked up the tunnel to the connecting surface opening. I have no idea if this is actually true, but it’s more fun than the other option, which is that it was part of the 1915 development of the Sunset Cliffs area for the Panama-California Exposition (if you’re interested in seeing what it looked like, just google “Sunset Cliffs historic” and you’ll find some cool images).

For a totally different experience, the entrance to the Sea Sewer is adjacent to the northern entrance of Smuggler’s Cave, and it features far less graffiti (basically none) solely because no one wants to go in there. Because it’s filled with seaweed and rats. With that said, it wasn’t all that bad…I’ve definitely smelled worse (like Seaweed Cave at Sunset Cliffs), and the seaweed was never more than mid-calf deep. The rats leave you alone, they just might occasionally surprise you as they scurry across your path. Basically it’s just one long tunnel from the mouth of Smuggler’s Cave to a rock ledge that provides a nice view looking back to the sea arch at Pappy’s Point.