Secret Beach and Skylight Cave

At the north end of Secret Beach, the roof of a sea cave gave way long ago, leaving a large sinkhole-like depression in the coastal bluff that reads like a hidden amphitheater open to the sky. That is Skylight Cave. You enter through a small tunnel-like opening about 130 feet east of the keyhole that separates Sculptured Beach from Secret Beach. Some mapping apps label the spot Point Reyes Crater, which is wrong; nothing here was formed by an impact.

Secret Beach itself runs roughly 0.85 miles beneath sheer bluffs, with small sea caves, visible faults, and twisted, contorted rock layers. Visitors who make it consistently call it beautiful and worth the effort, and just as consistently insist you go on a very low tide.

• Walk to Santa Maria Beach, then about one mile southeast to Sculptured Beach, then continue along the beach only when the tide is very low.
• Limantour Beach South Parking Lot: about 5 to 5.6 miles round trip.
• Laguna Trailhead: about 6.1 miles round trip.
• Coast Trailhead: about 8.1 miles round trip.
• The closest parking is still over 2.5 miles away, so there is no quick version of this outing.
• One section requires descending a nearly vertical 8-foot rock wall and climbing back up it on the return. Expect uneven intertidal rock and tidepools.
• Past the keyhole you arrive at the north end of Secret Beach and still have to cross the tidepool zone to reach sand.

Safe passage through the keyhole is usually limited to a tide of -1 foot or lower, and even then it depends on sand depth and surf height. At higher tide or in high surf the keyhole can be impassable. Check tide predictions and the weather forecast before you go, plan your turnaround around the rising tide, and keep watching the water the whole time you are down there. Visitors who have done it repeatedly give the same warning: watch for rising water. This is wilderness with no shelter from weather and no help nearby.

• All your water. There is none at the Coast, Laguna, or Limantour Beach trailheads.
• Food. There is no food service at or beyond those trailheads.
• Layers, since coastal weather shifts and there is nowhere to duck out of it.
• Footwear you are willing to get wet and that handles scrambling on rock.
• Vault toilets are at the Limantour Beach parking lots and Coast Campground. There are none at the beach or cave.

It is a long walk for a destination you may not reach. The tide window is short, the keyhole is conditional, and the 8-foot wall plus intertidal rock rule this out for anyone uneasy with scrambling or unsure footing. If the numbers do not line up, Sculptured Beach and Santa Maria Beach are still a fine day, and Secret Beach will keep.