Children's Pool

Children's Pool in La Jolla, California can be found at 850 Coast Boulevard. The facility has a walkway made of cement that is protected by a guard rail so that visitors can walk onto the ocean to experience it up close and in person. There is a view of the seals that have claimed the area that was originally intended as a children's play area as well.

The Pool was originally a bluff known as Seal Rock Point and features a large rock offshore known as Seal Rock in addition to the shallow water. In 1931 the funds to build a sea wall were donated by Ellen Browning Scripps, a local philanthropist, to try and form a bathing area that was safe for children.

In the 1970's seals started using the Children's Pool as a haul-out site during the winter; people and seals shared the area until there are high levels of bacteria from the excrement that made the beach unsafe found during 1997. The number of seals in the area increased a great deal when the area was sealed off. There are as many as one hundred thousand visitors to the Pool during the summer. The pool is an ideal place to see the behavior of seals up close.