By: bound2explore January 2016
The seven sea caves sit in between the beach of La Jolla shore and the sandy beach of La Jolla cove, San Diego. Six out of seven of caves are only accessible by kayak. Only one cave is accessible by land via hand dug tunnel. Those caves are only visible from the ocean, so it goes without saying if you want to see them up close, you have to kayak to the caves.
If you don’t own a kayak or you are a traveler like me who flew all the way from the east coast, then there is a rental office located a few blocks from the beach. The place will rent you a kayak, a wetsuit, a life jacket and also will guide you to the sea caves. When I arrived at the beach, a guide demonstrated on how to paddle and how to jump into a kayak and stay inside the kayak. Kayaking in the sea is more challenging than kayaking in the still water like a lake or a creek. You just have to be persistent enough to keep trying, especially if you do it for the first time, because every time you try to climb into the kayak, some waves are just waiting for you to knock you off the kayak. It was early May and windy, the water was also still cold. I was just glad that I had my wetsuit on when the waves slammed me over. After several tries, finally I made it into the kayak and started paddling. There were two guides in a group, one was leading a group to make sure that everyone paddled in the right direction and the other one was kayaking behind us to assure that everyone made it to the caves.
The tide was high that day, so we were not able to kayak into the cave. Instead, we just chilled in the kayak in front of the seven caves while the guide named each one of them from the west to the east: The Clam’s Cave, Sunny Jim’s Cave, Arch Cave, Sea Surprise, Shopping Cart, Little Sister, and White Lady. Then he pointed out the house on the top of the hill that belonged to Dr. Seuss. Wow, imagine that! I didn’t even know that Dr. Seuss had a house in San Diego. At some point I got a little bit dizzy when we just sat still in the kayak listening to a guide naming the seven caves. It was just a momentary thing but it made me think if I just had a seasick or a motion sickness.
Photo credit: flickr
After a few snap here and there, finally we paddled the kayak back to the shore. If you forgot to bring waterproof camera or waterproof pouch for smart phone and you want to take some pictures, you can always buy the disposable waterproof camera at the rental place.
Despite experiencing a momentary seasick, I will do sea kayaking again in heartbeat, because the view of the shore from a kayak is definitely something.
