Anyone who enjoys the beach should love The Map, the depiction of La Jolla Underwater Park and Ecological Reserve unveiled September 12 at La Jolla Shores.
Created on a once-unlovely 2300-square-foot corner of Kellogg Park between the park’s south comfort station and the playground, The Map lets visitors understand at a glance the orientation of the remarkable offshore canyons. The proximity of those canyons to the shore is the reason why Black’s Beach receives some of the most epic surf in California and why La Jolla Cove has been called The Sleeping Giant. When the swell direction is right, the canyon depths allow the waves to build to awesome heights.
The park is also home to a rich assembly of marine life, so The Map is studded with life-size chromatically accurate depictions of resident animals and invertebrates, each keyed with a number. The walls of the adjacent restrooms hold photographs identifying each of them. You could have a lot of fun with kids there searching for the cast bronze creature corresponding to each of the 62 photographs; artists Lynn Reeves and Rick Sparhawk designed the animal reliefs with the idea of paper rubbings in mind.
But this isn’t just a place for children. Different colored recycled glass in the Lithocrete base material helps to indicate the canyon’s various depths. Beachside landmarks are represented, as are underwater dive spots. Short of putting on a wetsuit and spending an awful lot of time breaching pressurized oxygen, there’s no better way of getting better acquainted with the world just offshore.
