Crystal Cove State Park preserves a rare combination of Southern California coastal habitat, open backcountry, and historic beach community between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Long inhabited by Native villages near natural springs, the area later passed through Spanish and ranch ownership before becoming part of the Irvine holdings in 1864. James Irvine II encouraged cottage building at Crystal Cove, helping create the small seaside community now preserved as the Crystal Cove Historic District, with beach cottages from the 1920s and 1930s. Established as a state park in 1979, it now protects shoreline, canyons, marine habitat, trails, and wildlife while preserving one of the few surviving historic beach colonies on this urban coast.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain