Lighthouses and the Vicente Interpretive Center Near San Pedro, California -- July, 2011

Olivia and Arianna visited two lighthouses while in southern California: Point Firmin and Point Vicente.

Point Firmin is at the south end of San Pedro: just take Gaffey Street as far south as it will take you and then turn right or left, find a parking spot and walk across the grassy park to the Point Firmin lighthouse.

It is open almost every day. It has a wonderful staff who will give you a tour of the living quarters and the beacon itself, the Fresnel lens. Interestingly enough, there is another Fresnel lens at the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA.


It looks like the "official" Point Fermin lighthouse website is no longer up (at least not today), but here is one source.

Of course, it never fails, here is another source at Wikipedia.

A second lighthouse Olivia and Arianna visited was the lighthouse at Point Vicente. From downtown San Pedro, the easiest and most scenic route is to take Gaffey Street to its end at Point Firmin, and then turn right (north) on Palos Verdes Drive toward Palos Verdes Peninsula. Hugging the scenic coast for a mile or two, one will see the lighthouse on the left. This is still an active military station, albeit very small, and is open to the public only one day of the month: the second Saturday of every month.

There are numerous sites where one can visit the lighthouse on the web:

• Al's Lighthouses
• Photo Blog by Richard Wong
• California's Majestic Lighthouses (perhaps some of the best photo)

Arianna and Olivia climbed to the top twice the day they visited. Children five and under are not allowed to climb to the top of the lighthouse. Olivia would turn five years old the week we visited, and because she was mature in her behavior, no one asked her age, and she climbed to the top with her older sister with no difficulty.

While visiting the lighthouse be sure to stop at the Vicente Interpretive Center for an opportunity to watch whales migrating along the coast. The best time to see the whales are in the spring and the autumn, but they are known to be in the area throughout the year.

We did not get a chance to visit the third lighthouse in the immediate vicinity of San Pedro: Angel's Gate lighthouse marking the Los Angeles Harbor.