San Clemente's Beach Trail Is Whole Again: A Walk to North Beach and the Miramar Food Hall

For more than a year, walking north from the San Clemente Pier meant turning back before North Beach. As of Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, it doesn't. The Orange County Register reported that the beach trail reopened that morning after a ribbon-cutting. The full path again runs from Calafia State Beach to North Beach, with the Pier about halfway.

The reopening came less than four months after the Miramar Food Hall opened at the North Beach end of the trail. North Beach parking was a known pinch before the trail closed, and the food hall made it harder. The rebuilt trail now ties the two together. For most of the town, walking in along the water is the easiest way to reach the busiest new place to eat in North Beach. The north end of that walk is also where the city and the Orange County Transportation Authority are still racing the ocean this winter.

What changed at Mariposa Point

The small steel-and-wood Mariposa Bridge is gone. The 2024 landslide knocked it down. OCTA removed what was left and leveled the path so it now runs at ground level next to the railroad. A long wall on the bluff side holds back the hillside. The Register described the wall as colored to blend with the hillside.

Here is what the trail section cost and how long it took:

The Register reported that most of the money came from state and federal sources, as part of $300 million awarded to OCTA for coastal rail stabilization. The trail itself was a secondary goal. The wall is there to protect the LOSSAN rail corridor, which carries Metrolink, Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, freight and military traffic. The path came back because rebuilding it was part of the same job.

At the ceremony, Mayor Rick Loeffler called the trail "the jewel, the treasure" of San Clemente, "going from one end to the other, looking at this beautiful ocean." With the Mariposa section open, you can walk it end to end again.

Why walking in works better than driving in

The Miramar Food Hall opened on Thursday, June 18. The Register's opening-day review said finding parking "briefly tests your patience." It pointed drivers to the lot on Avenida Pico next to Ole Hanson Beach Club and suggested the train as the other option.

Two weeks later, at the July 1 ribbon-cutting, the mayor said the food hall's popularity had raised concerns about e-bike parking and pedestrian crossings. According to the San Clemente Times, the city had cleared about 70 feet of vegetation and was moving ahead with e-bike racks and a crosswalk. We haven't found a later report confirming that the racks and crosswalk are finished.

That leaves three ways to get there, and this weekend one of them is out. Metrolink's service alert says Orange County Line and Inland Empire–Orange County Line trains won't run Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11, and no alternate transportation is provided. That leaves the Avenida Pico lot or your own feet. From the Pier, you're walking roughly half of the 2.3-mile path, and the new Mariposa Point section is on the way.

What's at the north end

The food hall sits in the old bowling alley building of the Miramar complex, near the entrance to North Beach. The San Clemente Times gives the history:

• 1938: The San Clemente Theatre opened. Architect Clifford A. Balch designed it in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
• 1946: The San Clemente Bowling Center was added next door.
• 1992: The Miramar closed and stayed vacant for more than 30 years.
• 2026: The bowling alley building reopened as a 12,600-square-foot food hall with an inside bar, an outside bar, ocean views and patio seating.

The Register described vaulted, wood-beamed ceilings rising to a narrow row of skylights. The counters line both sides of an L-shaped hall, and a large patio holds the outdoor bar.

The Miramar Food Hall website lists the address as 150 W Avenida Pico. Its current hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and the bar runs 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Opening-week coverage listed earlier hours, so the website is the better guide. Egg&Out is the exception, open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hours set your plan, because the trail is best early and the hall doesn't open until 8.

Here are the vendors grouped by when you'd likely want them, with the descriptions the food hall gives:

Before or after a morning walk

• Immersion Coffee Co., formerly the Manivela Coffee Truck, with shops in San Diego's Little Italy and La Jolla
• Egg&Out, for egg-forward burritos and sandwiches, open until 2 p.m.
• La Vida, for salads, wraps, toasts and smoothies, with a location in Carlsbad

Lunch on the patio

• Lobster Lab, serving lobster rolls and a Lobster Grilled Cheese, from Carlsbad
• Sidelines Sandwiches, which started as a pop-up at youth soccer tournaments at Del Mar's Surf Sports Park
• El Puerto Street Tacos, making street tacos, burritos and quesadillas since 2005, with two Carlsbad locations
• Norigiri, for handmade onigiri, with a location in Irvine
• RolledUp SC, for sushi rolls, burritos and bowls

Dinner and later

• MOTO Pizza, the Seattle-based shop's first location outside Washington, which blends Detroit, New York and Roman styles with Filipino influences
• Cosmos Burger, known for its Spicy Jam Burger and Monkey Fries
• Hen Haus, a new concept from Thyda Sieng, who ran Fire Bird in Long Beach
• Graciously Thai, a home-style Thai concept from Temecula
• It's Allll Rice, the fried-rice concept's first brick-and-mortar spot
• The Pita, serving shawarma, gyros and hummus, from the owners of San Clemente's Rocket Fizz
• MOTO Swirl, for soft serve with flavor swirls

The other half of the complex, the restored theater auditorium, will become the Miramar Event Center. Wedgewood Weddings will run it as a venue for weddings and private events. The Times said in June that it was expected to open this fall. A later Times report described it as a 250-guest venue that had not yet opened. We haven't found a confirmed opening date.

The north end is still a work zone

The reopened trail ends at the part of the coast with the most pending repair work. On Sept. 15, after surf from Hurricane Marie damaged the shoreline, the City Council declared a local emergency. It authorized up to $1 million for sand at North Beach, according to the Register. The same storm cost the Pier one pylon and at least 17 braces, and repairs were estimated at $300,000 or more.

OCTA has its own, bigger plan. Its Sept. 28 emergency declaration aims to move forward on about 690,000 cubic yards of sand along the rail corridor. About 240,000 cubic yards of that would go between North Beach and Mariposa Point, the same stretch of trail that just reopened.

The sand isn't there yet. The Register's Oct. 2 update said OCTA still had to secure a sand source and specialized marine dredging equipment and get regulatory approvals, and it gave no delivery date. We haven't found any report showing that the city's North Beach sand has been placed. OCTA's board said in September that it declared the emergency to move faster ahead of El Niño conditions forecast for this winter.

This trail has closed before. The Register notes that bluff failures, beach loss and erosion have interrupted rail operations through San Clemente several times since 2021. An active landslide also closed the northern part of the trail in late 2025. The new wall protects the tracks at Mariposa Point from the bluff. The planned sand is meant to buffer the railroad from wave action on the ocean side. If sand work begins this winter, expect equipment and crews on the stretch between North Beach and Mariposa Point. Check local news before you head out.

A route for this weekend

With trains off Oct. 10 and 11, here's a route that doesn't need one:

1. Start at the Pier, or farther south at Calafia State Beach if you want the full 2.3 miles.
2. Head north past Casa Romantica and through the new ground-level section at Mariposa Point, with the catchment wall on the bluff side.
3. Get to North Beach after 8 a.m., when the food hall counters open, or after 11 a.m. if you're after the patio bar.
4. Walk back the same way, or arrange a ride home from the Avenida Pico lot next to Ole Hanson Beach Club.

If your home is near the beach trail or in North Beach and you'd like to know how today's buyers value easy coastal access, The Coche Group can walk you through recent local evidence. Start with a home valuation and find out what buyers will pay, or browse our San Clemente neighborhood page.