🏖️ Clothing-optional beaches in California

55 on the map · 10 confirmed or written up

Nanitch › All spots › Clothing-optional beaches in California

California has one of the longest continuous clothing-optional beach traditions in the country, and a large share of the coastline in question is state or federally managed rather than private. That makes the land manager, not the state code, the thing worth checking before you go.

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The law, briefly

California's statute is Penal Code § 314 — the exposure has to be made “willfully and lewdly”, so it is the lewd quality of the act — not the nakedness — that the section is aimed at.

It is not drafted to reach ordinary, non-sexual nudity.

That is not the same as “it's legal here.” Counties and cities legislate separately, and whoever manages the ground — State Parks, the Forest Service, BLM, a county, a private owner — sets its own rules on top. Check the land manager for the spot you're actually going to.

Nanitch is a map, not a law firm, and none of this is legal advice. Rules change and enforcement is local — if it matters, check with the agency that manages the land before you go. Statute last read August 2026.

Confirmed or written up (10)

These have a page here because somebody has been to them: curated by Nanitch, confirmed by a member, or written up with real access notes.

Also on the map (35)

Named clothing-optional beaches imported from OpenStreetMap that nobody has confirmed yet. They are on the map and in the app, and they get a page here the moment someone reports back from one — not before. Listing every one of them:

A further 10 clothing-optional beaches in California are on the map with no name of their own — OpenStreetMap records them only as “nude beach”. They are on the map; there is nothing to call them by here.

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