Secluded Strip of Beach Clothed in Controversy : Lifestyles: Some visitors to San Onofre State Park have cited ‘lewd and lascivious behavior.’ Nude beach-goers say sexual activity is rare.

San Onofre State Park has its renowned surfing beaches, a nuclear power plant and bluff-top camping along old Highway 101. And then there’s Trail 6.

Swimsuits are optional at Trail 6, at the southern tip of the park. That in itself has never been a problem. But now the popular, secluded strip of sand near the foot of the trail is experiencing rocky times that threaten its tranquillity and perhaps its future, park officials warn.

The problem is that people are having sex there--heterosexual sex, gay sex and solo sex.

“In the last four or five years we have begun receiving numerous public complaints, in writing, about what they call ‘lewd and lascivious behavior’ going on down there,” said Jack Roggenbuck, the superintendent of the state parks’ Orange Coast District. “We have a responsibility to make sure this doesn’t go on . . . and we are going to enforce our rules much more strictly.”

But John from San Clemente, a regular at Trail 6 for eight years who declined to give his last name, said only a few people are ruining a good thing for the many others who frequent the beach.

“The sexual stuff, that’s pretty rare,” he said. “We have 100 to 200 people here on the weekends. There are families. People play volleyball.

“But there is a real paranoia going on because we heard they were going to close it.”

Officially, there is no such thing as a nude beach in the state park system, Roggenbuck explained. But there are many remote beaches up and down the California coast, including areas in Santa Barbara and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Black’s Beach in San Diego, where officials allow sunbathing in the buff.

The policy is more than a variation of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” In 1979, park officials decided that rangers would not take any action against nude sunbathers at remote beaches except in response to complaints, said Mike Tope, the park’s head ranger.

“We don’t designate nude beaches in state parks,” Tope said. “Any place in the system, like Trail 6, that is remote and out of the way, we aren’t going to know about it unless somebody complains. But the message we want to get out is that nudity is officially prohibited and we will enforce the rules upon complaint.”

There were few beaches in the state park system more remote than Trail 6 back in 1971 when then-President Richard Nixon described the area south of his Western White House as “a great sunning beach.” He transferred five miles of coastline, then part of Camp Pendleton, from U.S. Marine Corps ownership to the state.

Today, San Onofre State Park, which sprawls around Southern California Edison’s 27-year-old San Onofre nuclear generating station, includes one of the state’s finest surfing areas. It also includes a popular picnic and surfing spot called San Onofre Surf Beach, and a camping area situated along old Highway 101, which was the main route from Orange County to San Diego before the freeway was built.

There are six dirt trails winding about half a mile from the old highway through the wildflowers and mustard-tinged bluffs to the beach, the southernmost one being Trail 6. But creeping development in the surrounding areas and mention in alternative-lifestyle magazines have made the beach less remote every year, Tope said.

“It’s getting more and more popular,” Tope said. “It’s a beautiful and primitive area. There aren’t many places like it left in Southern California.”

But it’s not a place to go for “anything and everything,” as suggested in an underground magazine, Tope said, adding “we will make arrests if people abuse the freedoms.”

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In 1994, about 1.4 million people visited the park, up from 995,611 in 1990, according to park records. On any sunny day, the parking lot at the top of Trail 6 will have at least 10 to 15 cars during the week, dozens more on the weekends, officials say.

“It’s really a peaceful beach, quiet and serene,” said Tracy Holdsworth, 36, of San Diego, who visited Trail 6 on a recent weekday. “Because it’s such a long walk, there are few kids, no radios. It’s wonderful.”

Amber Borcherdt, 28, a massage therapist from Telluride, Colo., chanced upon Trail 6 last week while driving north along the coast toward Big Sur. Borcherdt and her friend asked a ranger where they could run their dogs, and he offered Trail 6, but also warned them that it was a “bathing suit optional” beach.

“That worked out fine for us because we didn’t bring bathing suits with us anyway,” she said with a laugh.

But the new popularity has brought problems. Tope estimated that in the past year alone, the park service has received about 80 complaints from visitors to Trail 6.

Then last year, during the summer season when lifeguards are present, a female lifeguard complained about the activities of some visitors, prompting park officials to let it be known they were going to crack down. Park rangers, who will step up their surveillance of the area from the bluff tops and on the beach in Jeeps, have the power to cite and arrest those who abuse the freedom of the beach.

A sentence for lewd activity, which is a misdemeanor, is a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail, park officials said. But no one really wants it to come to that, Tope said.

Certainly not the regular visitors. A letter-writing campaign organized by the “naturists” via the Internet has besieged the parks office, Tope said.

At the moment, nobody is saying the nude bathing must cease, he said.

“We are not saying nudism or bathing in the buff is the cause of the other behavior, but it certainly brings in that element,” Tope said. “Our mission is to keep the park safe and enjoyable for everybody. We don’t really have time to go down there and count bathing suits.”