Cottage cleanup for a perfect vacation location

The recently renovated cottages in Crystal Cove State Park’s historic district will soon be open to the public for overnight stays.

The first day that cottages will be available for rental is June 26, but reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis starting April 27. With only two months to go before the long-awaited opening, the atmosphere in the historic district is charged with excitement.

I participated in the flurry of activity there last week with a work crew from the Orange County Conservation Corps. Vic was teaching ecology and missed out on a great day. My crew and I helped California State Parks personnel plant 50 lemonade-berry bushes around a cluster of newly renovated cottages. We also removed weeds and trash.

However, our day’s work was only a drop in the bucket compared with the work that has already been done at Crystal Cove. Large areas in the historic district have been planted with California sagebrush, coast-bush sunflower and other native plants. The new landscaping won’t reach its full beauty for several more years.

During a break in work, we explored some of the restored cottages. Screened windows and porches opening onto ocean views gave us a preview of the pleasure that awaited lucky overnight visitors. My crew and I watched dolphins frolic in the surf as we ate our lunches on the new decking around the cottages. Family vacation getaways here will be relaxing and memorable.

The contract to manage the restored cottages plus the shake shack on PCH and a new café among the cottages at the beach has been awarded to the Crystal Cove Alliance, a nonprofit group that has been involved in the preservation of the historic cottages since 1999.

Their food-service partners include Doug Cavanaugh, chairman and chief executive of the Ruby Restaurant Group, and his business partner, Ralph Kosmides. An old-time ambience in food service is exactly what the Crystal Cove Alliance is looking for, since the atmosphere of the historic district is supposed to reflect beachfront living from 1935 to 1955.

Some of the cottages have period furniture in them already, but most are still undergoing renovation of bathrooms and kitchens. During restoration, workers sanded the wood down to the original paint. Then the cottages were repainted as close to the original color as possible. Many of the cottages glowed with fresh paint in various bright shades and hues. They now have accessible walkways, sturdy new decks with safety railings and sprinkler systems to bring them up to fire code. But with only some of the cottages restored, plenty of work remains.

Cottage 46 at the mouth of Los Trancos Creek has been restored to serve as a temporary visitor center. If you want a preview of the cottages or want to learn more about the history of Crystal Cove’s beach community of the 1920s and 1930s, visit on a weekend. Docents will be happy to answer your questions. Park on the inland side of PCH at the main parking lot. Guided tours are available at 10 a.m. on May 13 or June 10. Parking is $10, but the tours are free.

Crystal Cove Alliance will have more information posted in late April at www.crystalcovealliance.org/.

The alliance will not be handling reservations directly. That aspect will be managed by Reserve America, at www.reserveamerica.com or (800) 444-7275. At press time, there were no prices or pictures of the cottages posted, but descriptions of the cottages are available. They’ll start taking reservations after 8 a.m. on April 27.