Point Loma, San Diego

Cabrillo National Monument

The southern tip of Point Loma. You stand above the mouth of San Diego Bay and look at the city, Coronado, and the Pacific.

Where it is

1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive, San Diego, CA 92106. It is the end of the Point Loma peninsula, not downtown. The park is about 144 acres.

Hours and the entrance fee change. Check nps.gov/cabr before you go.

Why it is here

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed at San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542. That was the first European expedition to set foot on what later became the West Coast of the United States. Woodrow Wilson set this spot aside as a national monument on October 14, 1913.

The statue in the photo is 14 feet tall. Portugal gave a sandstone statue. Weather ate it. The one standing now is a limestone copy put up in 1988.

The lighthouse

The white building on the hill is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. Work finished in November 1855. The keeper lit it for the first time on November 15, 1855. The light sat 422 feet above the sea and, on a clear night, could be seen about 25 miles out.

Fog and low cloud often hid that light, because the hill was too high. The flame was put out for good on March 23, 1891. A new lighthouse, lower down the hill, took over. That lower light is still an active aid to navigation. You can see it from the Whale Overlook, about 100 yards south of the old lighthouse. The old lighthouse is a museum.

What else is there

On a clear day you can see the harbor, downtown, Coronado, Naval Air Station North Island, and the Pacific. Sometimes you can also see Tijuana and Mexico’s Coronado Islands.

Gray whales pass offshore from December through March. The Whale Overlook opened in 1950 and was the first public whale-watching lookout.

Tide pools are on the ocean side of the point. The park says the best time to see them is late fall and winter, when a negative tide falls during the day.

Photo by Blervis, November 16, 2025. Released CC0 on Wikimedia Commons. This page does not save anything.