Shelter Cove Beach — Attraction in Pacifica

This beach is great. Ty is incorrect about access through private property for this beach. The stairs are legally public access as Shelter Cove Beach is a public beach according to the Pacifica planning department and the other access methods are either unsafe or unreasonable. If anyone give you any trouble or physically blocks you tell them you have the legal right to use that stair and if pressed ask them if they want you to call the police, who give residents who’ve done this tickets for disturbing the peace instead of tickets to beachgoers for trespassing. Arno Rohloff, the owner and landlord of the land around the beach who keeps attempting to block access to the beach, has no right to stop you from going.

That said, be respectful and polite to the renters and complainers of the area (if they aren’t Arno anyways) and pass through the stairs quickly if possible. The correct path with the stairs goes through their backyards because Arno refused to maintain the other road despite a lawsuit, leading to its collapse into the ocean, and hasn’t put up a fence to ensure the privacy of these renters. They even have to carry their trash 75 feet up these stairs to dispose of it because of this negligence. People going through their backyards on top of everything else they have to deal with is frustrating, so be chill and quickly head to the beach down the stairs without creating too much trouble.

Also, I must say, Ty is also likely Arno under an alt account given he reviewed Big Sur beaches 3 days ago with very little detail and has no other reviews at this time with those reviews all being made at the same time, implying this is an alt account and he made those reviews just to provide backstory for the Big Sur claim. There have been suspicious cases in the past where Arno has attempted to comment anonymously to defend his actions. Hi Arno...

Running along Pacifica-Rockaway trail and took a detour to Shelter Cove Beach. As other reviewers noted, private property signs are illegally posted along the access.

I entered via the slide zone. It didn’t seem completely safe but I crossed it after watching several elderly Asian men in Crocks casually walk down to the area through and below the slide zone with their fishing rods. A local mountain biker said he watched an Amazon driver carry a package across the slide area. 🤨

As other reviewers explained, access is through the dirt road behind houses. It was a nice quiet beach with a steep climb up a long public access stairwell instead of walking back through the slide zone. I exited the stairway and ran back along Blackburn Terrace.

It was OK but there are better nearby places...

This beach is a great little getaway from the hustle of proper Pacifica beaches. Please ignore all the “private property” signs that the residents put on the stairs. Indeed reasonable access is required to get to all beaches in CA and the only other way down is a treacherous hike around the rocky cove. The NIMBY residents here just run an illegal intimidation game claiming “you’re trespassing in my backyard!”.

When get you get down from the first long set of stairs, go to the right and follow the primitive road toward the north side of the cove so you’re less likely to have to interact with the NIMBYs. Have fun, and...