The Sunken City
The “right” and “wrong” sides of San Pedro
Two things to share in this blog post.
1. For soooo manyyyy reasons, everyone should study abroad for, at least, a semester.
One of those soooo manyyyy reasons is that you meet some of the greatest people you’d never otherwise meet. In Jackie’s case, she met Bianca (and 5 other roomies + 100s of more ppl, but that’s for another time 🥰).
2. We saw Bianca, and her bf Jeff, while we were in LA. And they recommended the sunken city to visit and to blog about.
So, this article is dedicated to them as a token of our appreciation for the suggestions, and the hang outs 🙌
This article is for you if:
You want to take a walk with amazing ocean views+ see the remains of a 1929 landslide
Paint or see graffiti art
Live a little on the edge
To get to the sunken city, we ubered from Long Beach to Point Fermin Park. It was a 20 min ride through the Port of Long Beach which was pretty cool to see. There are tanks, cranes, pulleys, trucks, ships, storage containers… so many storage containers.
You may have heard the latest in the news, since the pandemic we’re ordering record numbers of online goods, and the supply can’t keep up with the demand. Ships are backed up in open water (you can see them from Long Beach) waiting to dock to unload their goods.
To help meet the demand they’re working on opening the port for 24 hour operation. But, the other issue is there’s a shortage of truck drivers, so once offloaded, the containers have no where to go — hence the back up.
Image by Barrett Ward on Unsplash
What is the sunken city?
Here’s the wikipedia¹ breakdown:
George H. Peck developed fancy homes + bungalows on the southern tip of San Pedro to attract people who wanted a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean in the 1920s.
They never did proper research to see if the ground was safe to build on.
The ground was not safe to build on, and a landslide in 1929 pushed 40,000 square feet of the neighborhood (which was mostly abandoned at the time because they saw it coming) into the ocean.
The remains of that landslide are now called, the sunken city.
Getting in
We got dropped off at Point Fermin park (807 W Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro, CA 90731) and saw a barrier and an iron gate around the edge of the park.
A little hesitant to jump over (cause there were DANGER, UNSAFE, and NO TRESPASSING signs everywhere), Jackie asked a guy already in the gated area how he got in there. He said to just jump the barrier over there and climb through the fence.
So that’s what we did.
And lots of people do it. We know, not a great reason to do something, but we followed.
Entering the Sunken City
We’ve googled there’s up to a $450 fine for trespassing if you’re found in there, but it didn’t look like anyone was patrolling for this. And honestly, we saw more people on the “wrong side” of the fence, than there were on the “right side.” So, we felt super comfortable to keep going.
Once you’re in the gate, you can peep the right side of the cliff. A small beach, tire swing, and that’s about it. The area is marked as dangerous due to the steep cliffs and loose rocks, and there have been death’s reported here, so be careful. We didn’t go down to the beach.
First peel past the gate.
We’ve googled there’s up to a $450 fine for trespassing if you’re found in there, but it didn’t look like anyone was patrolling for this. And honestly, we saw more people on the “wrong side” of the fence, than there were on the “right side.” So, we felt super comfortable to keep going.
Once you’re in the gate, you can peep the right side of the cliff. A small beach, tire swing, and that’s about it. The area is marked as dangerous due to the steep cliffs and loose rocks, and there have been death’s reported here, so be careful. We didn’t go down to the beach.
We found the easiest looking dirt path to go down. It was a little slippery going down because of the loose rock and dirt, but not super steep, and not super hard. Just focus and balance, and take your time.
If you wanted to spray paint here, someone offered us a can, and we saw some on the ground so you could probably use. Or, you could bring your own. We didn’t bring any and aren’t really spray paint artists so didn’t leave any tags.
Once you’re at the bottom, then it’s all exploring. Here’s some shots from the bottom and some of our favorite graffiti:
The ruins + graffiti
Look close, the tree is growing through the concrete, which we believe was once a street.
No caption necessary.
Jackie’s high: Oooo, the rush of hopping the fence to explore the dangerous area and terrain.
Eddys high: This was his birthday adventure!! Happy Birthday, Eddy!!
What we did well
We saved the whole day for this because we didn’t know how long we’d be there.
What we would’ve done differently
Eddy wouldn’t have worn his nice sneakers. And we also would’ve packed a lunch to sit and chill in the sunken city longer. Maybe we were rushing because of the trespassing signs, but it would’ve been cool to sit and look at that pretty view George H. Peck capitalized on. Instead, we left after we walked the whole thing and ordered lunch from a local spot.
Once you hop back to the “right side” of the gate and venture up the street just a little bit, there’s a hole in the wall, peculiarly decorated, shack that serves up beer and burgers + sandwiches. Not the greatest food, but not the worst, locals were fun to chat with, and beer was cold, so overall a fun experience!
From here we took the path along the coast in the Point Fermin park. Gorgeous.
Here’s some photos of that trek:
Ocean views from Point Fermin Park.
Walk + views along the coast at Point Fermin Park.
The ocean bottom at low tide.
About the Author: Jackie took work with her and Eddy quit his job to become a digital nomad. They’ve sold or donated most of their things and have downsized to just 1 suitcase + 1 carry on each while now traveling the world! Article initially published here on October 20, 2021.