Santa Cruz County, California
Privates Beach
Privates Beach — the name makes the purpose clear — is an informal clothing-optional beach south of Santa Cruz in the Aptos and La Selva Beach area of Santa Cruz County.
- Day use
- Hike In
About this place
Privates Beach — the name makes the purpose clear — is an informal clothing-optional beach south of Santa Cruz in the Aptos and La Selva Beach area of Santa Cruz County. The beach sits below high bluffs accessible via a trail down the cliff face, with the natural access barrier keeping casual visitors away and creating the secluded atmosphere that has given the spot its character and reputation.
The Santa Cruz coast has a strong naturist history — just up the road, Bonny Doon Beach is one of the most well-established C/O beaches in Northern California. Privates Beach extends that culture southward into a stretch of coast that's quieter, less documented, and more reliant on word-of-mouth. The beach is sand and pebble, backed by the characteristic Santa Cruz sandstone bluffs, with cold Pacific water and the offshore kelp beds that characterize this section of Monterey Bay.
The bluff trail is unmaintained and can be steep and slippery, particularly after rain. The beach is narrow at high tide. These are not deal-breakers for regulars who know the spot, but they explain why it's not on most visitor itineraries.
Visitor notes
Contributed by ClothingOptional.org Editorial Team
Who visits
Santa Cruz naturist community, Aptos and Capitola area locals, visitors who know to look beyond the main Santa Cruz beaches.
How to find it
The beach is south of Santa Cruz, roughly between Seacliff State Beach and La Selva Beach. Specific bluff access points are best found through Santa Cruz naturist community channels — the trail is unmaintained and not signposted.
Things to watch out for
The bluff access is steep and unmaintained — hiking boots and caution required, especially in wet conditions. Northern California coast sneaker waves. The beach narrows significantly at high tide — check tide charts. Cold Pacific water year-round.
Last updated
Etiquette & ground rules
Well-established informal C/O tradition in the Santa Cruz coast community. The bluff access self-selects for visitors who know what they're doing.
Know this spot?
Report an update
Beach closed? Parking price changed? Section moved? Send a short note and we'll check it.
Also in California
More places nearby
California, USA
Baker Beach (North End)
Baker Beach is a half-mile of Pacific shoreline tucked under the Presidio cliffs in northwest San Francisco, with one of the most famous postcard views in the United States: the Golden Gate Bridge framed against the Marin headlands. The northern end of the beach — closest to the bridge itself — is the long-established clothing-optional section, and has been for decades. The southern end is the textile family-beach part; nudity convention shifts as you walk north toward the rocky cove below Battery Chamberlin. Public nudity is technically prohibited under San Francisco municipal code, but Baker Beach is administered by the National Park Service (Presidio/Golden Gate National Recreation Area) rather than by the city, and the NPS doesn't enforce the prohibition. The result is a tolerated, decades-old C/O zone with no signs but a clear local convention. Visitors who stay in the northern third — past the rocky outcrop, in the direction of the Sand Ladder Trail — are operating within the established norm. The crowd is genuinely diverse Bay Area: San Francisco locals on a weekend, tech-industry expats, the long-standing queer community that has used the northern end as a meeting spot for decades, and curious tourists who heard about it. Cold Pacific water (typically 12-15°C even in summer) and the afternoon fog mean Baker Beach is a sunbathing-and-walking beach more than a swimming beach. Practical notes: free parking at several lots along Bowley Street and at the Battery Chamberlin lot at the north end; the Sand Ladder Trail from Lincoln Boulevard is the steep alternate entry. Parking fills early on warm weekends. Bus access via the 29-Sunset route to Lincoln/25th Avenue.
California, USA
Beeks Bight
Beeks Bight is an informal clothing-optional area along the Sacramento River near Folsom, California — a stretch of river bank in the American River Parkway system of the Sacramento Valley. The spot takes its name from an old Sacramento River landmark and has been used by Sacramento area naturists as a river skinny-dipping spot for generations. The Sacramento River here is wide, warm in summer, and flanked by riparian forest of cottonwood, willow, and Valley oak — the characteristic landscape of California's Central Valley rivers. Unlike the cold Pacific coast, the Sacramento Valley runs hot in summer (100°F+ regularly), and the river water warms to genuinely pleasant swimming temperatures of 72–78°F from late June through September. Sacramento is in the center of California's inland valley network, and river access near the city fills a recreational niche that the ocean or mountain lakes can't serve for people who want a same-day outing. The American River Parkway trails and the Folsom Lake recreation area are the backbone of Sacramento's outdoor recreation system.
California, USA
Black Sands Beach
Black Sands Beach is a dark-sand beach in the Marin Headlands portion of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, named for the distinctive dark volcanic and serpentine rock that erodes into the sand. The beach is reached via a short but steep trail from the Conzelman Road / Battery Spencer area and is a different location from Rodeo Beach (about 2 miles to the west) — both are in the Marin Headlands, but serve different communities of regulars. Black Sands has an informal C/O tradition with deep roots in the San Francisco gay community — the Marin Headlands above are on the Golden Gate Bridge north approach, and the beach below has long been a clothing-optional destination for Bay Area LGBTQ+ outdoor visitors. The setting is dramatic: sheer cliffs, cold Pacific surf, the Golden Gate visible to the south, container ships passing at close range through the strait. The GGNRA technically prohibits nudity, but enforcement at Black Sands has been consistently minimal due to the beach's self-selecting access and its established community character. The crowd tends to be male-dominated and LGBTQ+-friendly — a San Francisco institution that has persisted across decades of changing policy environments.