San Clemente's Beach Trail Is Whole Again, and the Mile North of the Pier Now Answers to the Railroad
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
"This is the jewel, the treasure," Mayor Rick Loeffler said at the ribbon-cutting on Friday, Oct. 9, according to the Orange County Register. "This is the treasure of San Clemente, going from one end to the other, looking at this beautiful ocean."
The full 2.3 miles from Calafia State Beach to North Beach are open again. The section north of the Pier had been closed for more than a year after a 2024 landslide knocked down the Mariposa Bridge. The trail is continuous end to end, but the northern mile you walk now was designed first to keep the bluff off the tracks, and the trail was rebuilt alongside it. That decision explains how the new section looks. It also explains why the beach, more than the path, will set the terms for walking it this winter.
The old steel-and-wood Mariposa Bridge is gone. The trail now runs at ground level beside the railroad, under a catchment wall nearly 1,400 feet long and 10 to 20 feet high. The wall exists to catch rock, soil and debris coming off the coastal bluff before they reach the tracks. The Register reports that it was colored to blend with the hillside. The Orange County Transportation Authority places this work, which it calls Area 3, between the El Portal Beach access and Linda Lane.
The budget shows what the project was really for. OCTA's full repair and protection effort cost $93 million. About $24 million of that went to removing the bridge and reconnecting the pedestrian trail. Construction started in September 2025. So roughly a quarter of the money went to the walk, and the rest went to protecting the LOSSAN corridor, which carries Metrolink, Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, freight and military trains through town.
The trail and the tracks run side by side, so when one has a problem, the other usually does too. The Register notes that bluff failures, beach loss, erosion and worn-out shoreline protection have interrupted rail service through San Clemente several times since 2021.
The most recent interruption came just weeks before the ribbon-cutting, when high surf closed the line on Sept. 6. OCTA said crews placed more protective rock after waves washed over the tracks, and that further work would depend on conditions. Voice of OC reported in mid-September that Metrolink and Pacific Surfliner service had resumed. Separately, Metrolink posted an alert that no Orange County or Inland Empire–Orange County trains would run Oct. 10 and 11 because of scheduled track projects.
The Mariposa wall is one of four reinforcement areas in OCTA's coastal rail emergency program. A second stretch, Area 4, still needs an engineered shore protection structure and repairs to existing riprap. OCTA's Area 4 page says more information will be available later this year and gives no construction dates. An Aug. 12 presentation to the South Orange County Beach Coalition said talks about mitigation at Cyprus Shore were still going on, and that temporary catchment walls at Casa Romantica and Mariposa would be removed "when appropriate." The trail work at Mariposa is done, and the plans for Area 4 and Cyprus Shore don't have dates yet.
The new wall protects the trail from the bluff behind it. The ocean side is less settled this winter.
According to the San Clemente Times, City Manager Andy Hall said this season's high tides and surf, ending with swell from Hurricane Marie, cost the Pier one pylon and 17 bracings. Engineers judged the Pier safe for pedestrians and maintenance vehicles. The City has limited heavier loads, though, and that includes a planned car show. Hall said repairs will likely wait until spring, after the king tides expected in December and January. That timeline is an estimate, not a firm schedule.
The same report describes ocean water filling the pedestrian underpasses beneath the tracks. Crews pumped them out, and sometimes the next night's swell filled them again. Those underpasses connect the neighborhoods to the sand. On a big-surf day, a walk that starts at a familiar access point may have to start somewhere else.
Hall credited the City's recent nourishment for the sand still in place near Marine Safety headquarters, the Pier, Linda Lane and North Beach. The next step is smaller and temporary. A Sept. 1 City staff report describes a fall 2026 SCOUP project using about 5,000 cubic yards of new sand to build winter storm berms in some locations ahead of a predicted El Niño, in place of "sand pushing." The report does not give a start date or list the specific beaches.
The large sand projects come later. The same report puts the next U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cycle of 251,000 cubic yards in 2029/30 and OCTA's placement of at least 540,000 cubic yards in fall 2028. It also says some planned projects are not yet funded. Compared with those numbers, this winter's berms are about 2 percent of a single Army Corps cycle. They are a holding measure, and the newly reopened trail will go through its first winter with that much protection.
Metrolink describes the trail as flat and accessible to wheeled travelers. It has two stations: "San Clemente," known locally as North Beach, at the north end, and San Clemente Pier, open only on weekends, in the middle. The southern half, from the Pier to the state beach, is 1.2 miles. The northern half, between the two stations, is about a mile. A round trip can run anywhere from 1.0 to 4.5 miles. Because of the Oct. 10 and 11 track closure, check Metrolink and Amtrak before planning to ride one way and walk back.
For a year, Casa Romantica sat on the bluff right above the closed section. Now that the trail is open again, the Cultural Center and Gardens is an easy stop partway through a northbound walk. Its current calendar runs through the season:
The Christmas Open House on Dec. 6 falls in the same month as the king tides Hall mentioned. A walker heading north from the Pier to get there will pass a Pier still waiting for its spring repairs, and storm berms too if the City's fall placement has gone in by then.
If you own along this stretch of coast and are thinking about how this winter's berms, the Pier repairs and the rail work might affect your property or your timing, Nick Lombardo can share what he's hearing locally. Let's Connect.
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