Beacon's Beach trail in Encinitas reopens in time for holiday weekend

The beloved Beacon’s Beach access trail has reopened, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.

Mayor Tony Kranz, who was at Beacon’s when it opened Wednesday morning, told the City Council that night that the reopening news was “very warmly received by the community.”

A city news release notes that while the trail now is open, construction fencing will remain in place at the north end of the parking lot on Neptune Avenue “until contractors can repair a hole under the sidewalk.”

The rustic dirt trail runs from the tiny parking lot down the cliff to the beach in a switch-back fashion. In January, city officials closed the trail as an emergency measure after record-setting winter storms reactivated a landslide problem and caused part of the trail to collapse.

Scientists then monitored conditions on the hillside for weeks before determining that the landslide activity had settled down.

In April, the city hired a contractor to fix the damaged trail sections and work began by early May. The project involved repairing the existing trail, filling “voids under the walkway,” and fixing the section at the bottom of the slope, city press releases indicate.

The Beacon’s area has a long history of landslide problems. This is the second time in two years that the trail has been ordered closed. In 2022, the city spent about $50,000 fixing the damage and ultimately reopened the trail after a several-month closure.

At Wednesday's council meeting, the mayor said fixing the dirt pathway now should be seen as a temporary solution.

“We can’t keep fighting the trail battle. We’re going to need a staircase there,” Kranz said as he suggested that part of a proposed city sales tax increase, which is scheduled to go before voters in November, could fund a staircase project.

However, staircase proposals have faced their own troubles. In 2018, the city’s Planning Commission considered two proposed staircase options. The first one, which involved a concrete structure, was described by some opponents as a “Las Vegas-style skywalk,” while a wooden replacement option also generated criticism. Both options were rejected.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune .