Huntington Beach Coal Fire Pits — Attraction in Huntington Beach

Was just there on Sat. June 25th. I arrived around 9:25am, entrance right off Beach Blvd, parked in parking lot 17, and to my amazement I saw pretty much all fire pits already taken. Somehow there was an open one still, parked quickly and ran to it before other people parking saw it, just in case. Having read some reviews about the fire pits before, saying that if you get there around 10am, you can still find some, I thought I'd find more pits available if I got there earlier. I was wrong. People there already had their pop-up tents all popped and up, barbequing on their grills, throwing the football on the sand. The beach parties were already going on by 9:30am. This was the case definitely with the pits closer to the area with volleyball courts. I got the last available pit as far as my eye could see in the area a little further up. I was in between lifeguard stations 15 and 17, closer to 17. The pit was in the first row closer to the parking lot. I was hoping to have gotten one on the second row which have a more open view of the water and the sunset. But I still liked the location as it was pretty close to a shower stall, a bathroom, Zack's cafe, and closer to the parking, too. The bathroom was pretty clean considering how busy it gets there. People were friendly. At night, I had a couple of different groups come to ask for fire wood that we could spare and the other group for some utensils, which we had to spare and shared with them. The group next to us had a good size portable speaker playing music at a good volume most of the day. Luckily, we had similar music tastes and saved me from having to use my smaller speaker. Beach security does drive around starting at 8:30 or so, announcing that the beach will close at 10pm. They drove around again at 9pm, 9:30pm, and 10pm. Good reminders to start packing up. I recommend taking lanterns or other light devices to help you pack in the dark. Overall, it was all good. A great time was had with my family...

A bit crowded, got therr around 2pm and the beach parking lot got closed at 3 for full capacity! We were at Tower 13. Wasn't hard to find am openfire pit at that time - a few were taken but not all, but around 5pm others came to take the pits. We brought games and food and drinks and chairs but for got umbrellas or canopies which was fine. The waves were BIG and the ocean was very cold and rough and full of small children getting knocked over in the shallows, so we resorted to playing beach volleyball. Met a cool family that let us use the net cause we only brought a ball, had some fun games with our own friends and then with the family! Nignt time wasn't too cold and the firepit was easy to get started. We borrowed gas from another firepit group because we couldn't gwt ours to light. As you can tell, people are nice and fine sharing and super friendly! Only downside is the crowdedness and difficulty parking. Oh, and the beach is kind of dirty. We got covered in dust all the time and felt very sticky and humid from the air and the sand. There were also groups that were smoking weed or pouring wine in the fire which wafered over to us and STANK, but a patrol car was there and when it made the rounds the smell stopped. Overall recommend, just get there early and bring lots of stuff, find a nice spot that isn't busy, dirty, or around groups with...

This beach is great, firepits are always clean when you get there. I would suggest reserve a pit no later than 9am on a summer weekend. Earlier if it's a holiday. We always have a great time. Only this year our experience was not so great. We got there early, and we started our bonfire around 8:30 any earlier would have still been too hot. By 9:50 the police where asking us to pack up. We had lots of equipment but were still doing our best to clear the beach. Even though we were not the only ones still on the beach the police chose our group to threaten with citations if we didn't "move faster". He then said over his speaker that we had one minute to clear out, then 30sec later gave us an "extension" of one minute. I have come to this beach since I was a kid and not once did we encounter this, they usually keep making general announcements to clear the beach, but are never this pushy. Definitely ruined what would have been the...