Chris Hubbard traverses Lizard's Wall.

ALONG SUNSET CLIFFS in the Point Loma section of San Diego you can stand 90 feet above the ocean watching a sunset as waves crash into cliffs and surfers bob in the water below. You can also descend to tidepools, pocket beaches, or into the water - if you have the stamina and are willing to take the risk.

The mudstone and sandstone cliffs are near-vertical in places, and are moving inland despite all efforts to stall geologic forces with seawalls and other armaments. Here and there, ropes have been anchored in the cliff face (who knows by whom) to help those brave enough to descend. Surfers, carrying their boards, use the ropes to gain quick access to the water, for "when breaks are unfavorable at other surfing spots they are often good here," says long-time local surfer Mick Gammon. Some other people descend in this manner as well - not always wisely.

Within three months last winter, three people died along Sunset Cliffs. Two fell (one may have been a suicide), and a third "we suspect was swept from the rocks in large surf conditions," says lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma. "Relative to Ocean Beach, the number of rescues at Sunset Cliffs is not great, but we do probably 40 or so a year."

Sunset Cliffs Natural Park extends along the bluffs for a mile and a half. It is very narrow for the first mile north to south, winding along the bluff edge by Sunset Cliffs Boulevard from Adair Street to Ladera Street, where it widens to take in some 50 acres inland and upslope. The cliffs beyond Ladera Street are deeply eroded. They descend in a series of ledges, dropping abruptly to the water from as high as 50 feet.

An article in the winter 1997 issue of Surfer's Journal names Lizard's Wall at Sunset Cliffs as a challenging practice area for climbers. "Surfing and climbing just sort of seem to go together," writes Chris Hubbard. "It's the same adventurous spirit to face raw nature and deal with it."

For more timid and less agile souls, there's another way down: a narrow path that traverses the cliff face. This writer, who does much better crawling through narrow, enclosed spaces than traversing dizzying heights, did manage that path - with much assistance. As we reached the small beach, a surfer who had led us down told us that the tide was on the rise and the sand we stood on would soon be under water. Then he paddled away, beyond Luscomb's Point, to the break. I looked up at the steep path and the clifftop 30 or 40 feet above us (and no railing!) and for a moment considered whether my will was up-to-date. With a lot of help, I made it to the top with the others - though I could have used a clean dry shirt when I got there.

There is also a stairway at the foot of the parking lot at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, but "people have to have some kind of goat in their background to use it," says Mick Gammon, a surfer and San Diego County employee who would like to see access improved. At high tide, the rocks at the bottom of these stairs are under water.

Strolling along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, one can enjoy fantastic ocean and sunset views at little peril to life or limb. But for an entire mile there is not one improved accessway downward. Rough trails lead to the water in several places, but they require attention and coordination. If an emergency occurs, rescue may arrive too late: there are no well-defined street entries and exits to the Sunset Cliffs area, a neighborhood of spacious and well-kept homes, so it is difficult for public safety personnel to respond as quickly as they can elsewhere.

Looking north from Luscomb's Point

Lt. Lerma says some people get stranded on cliffs, others in the water, and some on boats that lose power in the surf line along this isolated stretch of the coast. "When there's large surf, as in the past winter months, surfers get caught, particularly at Osprey Point, a popular surfbreak that attracts experienced surfers, as well as some who are not as experienced as they think. They get caught in Clairborne's Cove, where there is no safe exit point."

The rewards of reaching the shore are many and varied. Wind and water action on the young, erodible sedimentary rock formations has created pocket beaches, sea caves, and small coves. "There are miles of beaches south of Ladera Street, as well as a beach at the foot of Hill Street," Gammon wrote in a letter to the Coastal Conservancy.

Lt. Lerma urges that any expansion of access include public safety measures, including lifeguards on the beaches of Sunset Cliffs. "At Ladera, a large rip current pulls right off the beach," he says. "If we put in more access, the whole dynamic here will change. We will add more mainstream people," who are not as adept at navigating coastal hazards as surfers are.

The unique mix of beauty and danger at Sunset Cliffs is part of the area's attraction. Recently a lengthy planning process has been completed, resulting in the Sunset Cliffs Master Plan. The Coastal Conservancy is working with the City of San Diego and local residents to study potential access sites and improvements. The hope is that within a year construction can begin on a new accessway down to the water.

At Sunset Cliffs, watching surfers bobbing offshore waiting for the right moment to take off, or watching a long beautiful sunset, the deepening twilight, the star-filled night, you can forget the noise of urban existence and fall in love with the world again.

At the same time, however, Lt. Lerma points out, no matter what is done to promote safety, "history has shown that if someone wants to go to the edge of a cliff and flirt with death, they will do it." 

Richard Retecki is a Coastal Conservancy project analyst.