by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)
If you drive down Balboa Avenue, passed the Newport Pier, passed the Balboa Pier, and passed the Balboa Island Ferry launch, to its end of the Balboa Peninsula in Orange County you end up at a dead end in a residential area a few streets wide; the "q-tip" like east end of the Balboa Peninsula.
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| East End of Balboa Avenue |
At this is the Entrance Channel to Newport Bay and a tiny park; the West Jetty View Park. Don't mind that the park does not show up on some maps (even fancy maps like the official USGS Topos). On some maps, the park is represented by a dot. The dot is a pretty reasonable representation since the park is tiny.
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| Overall View Of Balboa/Newport Beach Area |
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| Detailed View of Location of West Jetty View Park |
Despite what the park's website may say, the park has no dedicated parking lot so if you are driving around trying to find a spot to impress someone, be aware you may not be able to stop for more than a moment "in a red zone". The pier lots mentioned on the website are a long, long walk away. There is no parking lot at all in the park cul-de-sac, and there are maybe three curb-side parking spots on the street. Unfortunately, the spots are shared with the local residents, so a chance of finding an empty parking spot is very low. You may have to drive a couple of blocks before finding a spot and then walk back to the park.
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| Chic 2296 E. Balboa Avenue - "The Last House on the Left" |
The park is a pavement walkway curling past a few benches and curling through a patch of grass looking down on the harbor inlet.
On the park
pavement was this survey disk. I have never seen one of these in the
middle of a sidewalk, where it can easily be tripped over.
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| Does that Really Say "1897"? |
***
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| Have A Seat... |
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| Why Thank You |
***
Where the park
pavement ends, Balboa Beach begins, as does the breakwater (jetty, I guess).
Broken-rock jetties define the
800-1000 ft wide and 10-30 ft deep Entrance Channel.
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| Jetty and Entrance to Newport Bay |
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| Full length of Jetty |
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| Beach Side of Jetty |
The beach was pretty empty, but someone decided to drive over the sand.
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| The Eye In The Sky |
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| Tsunami Alarm |
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Small Isolated Beach on the Opposite (Corona Del Mar)
Side of the Channel |
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| Rose from a Nearby Residential Garden |
