Being close to the beach is one of the main reasons people love living in Carlsbad, and since the late 1980s, thousands come every day to walk on the Carlsbad Sea Wall. By “Sea Wall,” I mean what most people refer to as the “lower sea wall,” the serpentine path along the sand between Pine and Tamarack.

• This half mile walkway is part of the city’s trail system and a perfect place to take out of town guests.
• It is a good trail for winter months when rain makes other trails muddy.
• It’s flat and paved, making it one of our most accessible trails (the north end has a steep slope, but the southern end at Tamarack has access off the State Parks parking lot).
• There are restrooms at both ends.

The Sea Wall’s original name was the Carlsbad Seawall Bluff Stabilization Project. The walkway features a short wall on either side (along with a significant substructure underground) that helps protect the bluff from erosion. You can get down to the sand at a few places along the wall that have stairs. (The terms “Sea Wall” and “Seawall” both appear in city documents, but the former seems to have won out as the official way to write it.)

Here are some of the original drawings I pulled from the archives:

Upper sea wall

The official name for what most people call the upper sea wall is the Carlsbad Boulevard Blufftop Walkway. This wide sidewalk is cantilevered over the bluff running parallel to the lower sea wall. It has stairs down to the Sea Wall Trail at several spots along the way.

Different rules

• The Sea Wall Trail (the lower sea wall) is for pedestrians only and does not allow dogs.
• Dogs on a leash are welcome on the upper sea wall, where you can also use roller skates and rollerblades, as long as you avoid any reckless behavior.
• Scooters, skateboards and other similar forms of “wheeled transportation” are not allowed on either.