About Revisions Thousand Steps/Dinosaur Caves Ocean Blvd & Palisade Ave, Shell Beach, CA 93449 Max Depth: 26-30ft/8-9m Average Viz: 5-10ft/2-3m Entry Type: Shore Bottom Composition: Rock Aquatic Life: Plenty To See Spring: 50-55°F/10-13°C Summer: 56-60°F/13-16°C Fall: 56-60°F/13-16°C Winter: 50-55°F/10-13°C 4/30/2014 6:54 PM TomM

Thousand Steps/Dinosaur Caves is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located at Ocean Blvd & Palisade Ave, Shell Beach, CA 93449. The maximum depth is 26-30ft/8-9m. The average visibility is 5-10ft/2-3m.

Fun dive, easy entry and lots of sealife including seals! There are stairs leading to the waters edge and on the way out you will understand where the name came from! There’s a lot of kelp and very big rocks here. Visibility changes rapidly, sometimes it is clear inside the kelp beds and sometimes outside or just on the edge. I have not figured out what determines that. If you have a kayak, there are some pretty spectacular panicles about a half mile off shore. They come up to 20 30’ below the surface and the bottom can be 80’. They seem to be inline if you draw a line from Port San Luis to Bird Rock. In the summer and fall the kelp give their locations away.
Be careful in the afternoon, the wind comes up fast and hard and can quickly put a 2’-3’ wind chop on the water or worse start blowing offshore! Did you say you wanted to visit the islands?

Comments

Jswright3 - 4/25/2022 3:45 PM The stairs have been "closed indefinitely" due to erosion and one of the support columns now dangling in midair. It is still currently possible to go around the plyboard that blocks the use of the stairs but the guardrails have corroded significantly and in my opinion, looks ready to give out within the not so near future. I went down it 4/24/22 and it felt risky using it, and within a year or two, I doubt it will be worth the risk.