Snorkeling with the Leopard Sharks & Exploring the Caves in La Jolla

Let’s go to La Jolla & snorkel with the leopard sharks! And see the infamous caves!

Meet @9am @ Kellogg Park AT La Jolla Shores Beach. (South end of the beach in front of the tennis club and Marine Room restaurant). Please allow plenty of time to get parked. Summer is busy of course! Bring your wetsuit, snorkel, mask, fins, sunscreen, rash guards (and water shoes or flip flops for the caves).

We will snorkel first, then go explore the caves afterwards which are nearby and cool!

We will defintiely grab food somewhere afterwards - suggestions welcome! Below we have copied info to read ahead of time taken from two reputable websites 😃:
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Snorkeling La Jolla Shores would be pointless were it not for the beautiful Leopard Sharks that congregate there to raise their young in the summer. Other than sand and a few rays, the sharks are pretty much it.

In the summer, on the south end of the beach, in front of the tennis club and Marine Room Restaurant area, the wonderfully beautiful Leopard Sharks hang out in the hundreds in 4-5 feet of water.

You should not be afraid of snorkeling with Leopard Sharks. They are small, harmless sharks that reach a maximum of 4.9 feet long. They live mostly in California, Oregon, and Mexico. They pretty much cannot harm you, only having mouths big enough to feed on clams, crabs, and fish eggs.

Park your car at Kellogg Park or in the neighborhood nearby, and walk down the beach to the south to the area in front of the tennis club and Marine Room Restaurant.

The sharks are normally in the area in front of the Marine Room Restaurant. The nice thing about doing it this way is that after you get out of the water you can use the fresh water showers and restrooms at the park. But the parking is normally a bit difficult.

For easier parking, and more direct access to snorkeling La Jolla Shores, there is a small alley type access point to the beach right beside the Marine Room Restaurant. This will lead you directly out to where you want to enter the water. The sharks are most often straight out from the restaurant. The problem sometimes with this access point is if there is a high tide there is no beach available, it comes right up to the buildings.

When snorkeling La Jolla Shores we have found the sharks tend to stick to a fairly shallow area. So if you swim too far out, and it gets deeper, you will probably not find them. So swim out until you are in 4-5 feet of depth, and swim from left and right along that depth until you find them. Sometimes the visibility is low if there are waves. We found the sharks were easiest to see just where the visibility was starting to improve in slightly deeper water.

When snorkeling La Jolla Shores you will be in shallow waters over sand, and the water is fairly warm because of this. If you are thick skinned you may do fine without a wetsuit. We enjoyed having our shorty wetsuits though.

There are lifeguards here which makes snorkeling La Jolla Shores a little safer. But you will be at the far end of the beach so be aware they may not see you if you are in distress.

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La Jolla is home to the largest annual aggregation of leopard sharks in the world. Every summer, locals and visitors flock to La Jolla Shores Beach to swim, snorkel, kayak, and dive with the sharks.

Even kids can enjoy this special interaction. La Jolla leopard sharks swim in relatively shallow warm waters near The Marine Room restaurant during the day. They leave to forage for food at night in the nearby submarine canyon.

While skittish, they do not seem bothered by sharing the ocean with respectful beachgoers. The best time of year for leopard shark viewing is between mid-June and December, with peak numbers during July and August when they congregate by the thousands.

If swimming with sharks sounds dangerous, rest assured that it’s not.

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Fun Facts About La Jolla’s Leopard Sharks

La Jolla’s leopard sharks are almost all female, most of which are pregnant. Their gestation period is 10-11 months. They bear live young, and a litter will typically consist of 15-20 babies.
They congregate at La Jolla Shores because of its calm, warm, shallow waters—an ideal natural incubator—and abundant food in the sand, rocky reefs, and kelp forest of the protected preserve, including clams, crabs, shrimp, squid, fish, and fish eggs.
The sharks’ distinctive color pattern, resembling leopard spots, is so varied that they can serve as identification similar to human fingerprints.
Leopard sharks live along the Pacific coast of North America from Washington to Mazatlàn, Mexico, including the Gulf of California.
They arrive at La Jolla’s shores as early as June and as late as December, peaking in August and September.
Leopard sharks have small mouths and teeth, perfect for feedings on crustaceans and bony fish.
Adults can grow up to six feet in length, but the average size is four to five feet.