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California's Highway One, Newport Beach and Balboa Island
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Sailing and cruising the harbor at Newport Beach, California
In the palm-decorated seaside city of Newport Beach in Southern California, visitors discover breezy oceanfront boulevards and footpaths, a precious nature preserve and a glimpse of what this coast was like in the 1930s.
For a century and more, sleek, varnished yachts and sailboats have tied up in front of vintage mansions in Newport Beach. Today, more than 10,000 pleasure craft are home-based in Newport Harbor, which is wrapped in the Balboa Peninsula, a narrow, six-mile-long arm of land between the city and the Pacific Ocean. Ground zero for summer vacationers are the glorious golden beaches, coves and wind-swept bluffs that fringe the peninsula and the Newport and Balboa Piers reaching out into the sea. Within the harbor, tiny Lido and Balboa islands are pricey residential enclaves ringed with shops and restaurants, and in the case of Balboa, a waterfront promenade
Alongside Newport Pier on the beach, the only dory fishing fleet on the West Coast has been selling fresh snapper, mackerel, spiny lobster, crab and other local seafood since 1891. The dorymen head out to sea at midnight or so nearly every day, returning in a thrilling rush through the surf for beach landings by about seven a.m. to unload and sell their catches at the Dory Fishing Fleet market, which is marked by an arch topped by a fisherman manning oars in a wooden boat; today’s boats are fiberglass, propelled with outboard motors. Near the pier, a red neon fish sign reading “Don’t Look Up Here” announces the Crab Cooker, where shrimp and scallops, crab and fish-and-chips have been served on paper plates since the 1950s.
A walking and biking trail runs the length of the Balboa Peninsula, about five miles, connecting the piers and accessing beaches, parks and vista points. At the south end of the peninsula below West Jetty View Park, boats sail in and out of the harbor and bodysurfers brave the rough waves. Every summer, swells that originate off New Zealand slam against the jetty's boulders and, in the final seconds before they meet land, morph into monster waves, as high as twenty feet, known collectively as the Newport Wedge, so treacherous they can only be ridden by bodysurfers, not board surfers.
From Balboa Pier, sightseeing, and whale-watching cruises depart, along with fishing charters and the huge Catalina Flyer catamaran that runs back and forth to Catalina Island. On the inner harbor, the Victorian-style, cupola-topped Balboa Pavilion was built in 1906 as the southern terminus of the Pacific Electric Railway, which connected with Los Angeles. Among the wildlife that can be spotted from the verandas at the pavilion are snowy egrets, Great Blue herons, myriad gulls and pelicans, sea lions, and "Rupert," a resident black swan.
Nearby, the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum displays model ships, historic photos, marine mammal skeletons and a fully rigged Snowbird sailboat. Kids head for the “touch tank” while their parents watch films and attend boat-building demonstrations.
On the opposite side of the Pacific Coast Highway from Newport Beach, Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is Southern California's largest estuary—nearly three-and-a-half miles long and a half-mile wide––where fresh and salt water come together in marshy wetlands, lush and precious habitat for thousands of birds and waterfowl. Beloved by bicyclers, joggers and slow-moving vehicle drivers, Back Bay Drive is a one-way road bordering the water within sight of huge flocks of migrating birds––as many as 35,000 birds can be seen here on a given day during the winter. Among endangered species that live or tarry here are the Light-footed Clapper rail, Belding's Savannah sparrows, Peregrine falcons and California Least terns.
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Oceanfront boardwalk in Newport Beach, CA
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