La Jolla Cove is a small sandy beach enclosed by sandstone cliffs at the northern edge of La Jolla, protected as part of the San Diego–La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve. The water is exceptional by Southern California standards — clear enough to see the bottom in twenty feet of water, populated with garibaldi fish (bright orange, the state marine fish of California), sea lions, and in summer, harmless leopard sharks that congregate in the shallows.
The beach itself is tiny — maybe fifty metres of sand — and crowded on any warm day. The real draw is the water: snorkelling from the cove is productive, with visibility that reaches forty feet on a calm day, and the sea lions that haul out on the rocks at the north end of the beach are indifferent to swimmers. Children wade with the leopard sharks in July and August.
The cliff path above the cove gives good views of the sea cave openings and the kelp beds visible through the clear water below. The village of La Jolla, a ten-minute walk uphill, has the best restaurant concentration outside of North Park.