Aliso Beach 1

Posted on October 7, 2002 in Photos

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Aliso Beach lies about 6 miles to the southeast of Crystal Cove. In true Orange County style, condominiums and fanciful turreted houses press close to the boundaries of the park.

The creek begins in the watershed behind my condominium development, runs alongside El Toro Road, dives underneath a shopping mall, and then re-emerges to run the gauntlet of a tawny gorge before bursting out to the sea. It’s not an unspoiled waterway. Those who park their cars on the inland side catch a whiff of the effluent dumped in Aliso Creek’s waters by upstream communities. (I don’t doubt that some of the methane I sniffed when I parked there yesterday was produced in my very own intestinal tract.) Though signs next to the upper parking lot warn swimmers to avoid a dip, no such signs are posted below the Coast Highway Bridge. And, naturally, kids splash about in it, scaring sea gulls and, sometimes, gulping a brackish mouthful of the estuary.

If the weather looked great, that’s because it was! We’re now in Indian summer.

This series shall continue through the week.