Jeep Trl, California

Crystal Cove is a mostly-undeveloped area located along the coast between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. It consists of rolling woodlands leading to cliffs along the ocean. It gets its name from Crystal Cove State Park, which runs along both sides of Pacific Coast Highway for about 3 miles. On the inland side, there are trails for mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking. On the coast side, a beautiful beach offers tidepools, scuba diving and swimming.

Crystal Cove State Park contains a historic district that consists of several dozen vintage beach cottages from the 1920s and 1930s. Until a few years ago, the cottages were privately owned.
They are now part of Crystal Cove State Park and are available for vacation rentals, though they are booked up several months in advance. The cottages have brought quite a bit of additional traffic to the area, especially since a shuttle is now provided to get people from the parking lot on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway. In the past, the only access to the beach from the parking lot was hiking through a tunnel that runs under the highway.

At the northern end of Crystal Cove, a large development of timeshares and resort condos and an upscale shopping have recently been built. Most long-time residents of Laguna Beach were not happy to see this development take over what were once pristine hills. Luckily, the rest of Crystal Cove is protected by the State Park system and will not be developed.