Dog Beach

This guide to Dog Beach in Ocean Beach, San Diego opens with a quiet ritual at the waterline: visitors releasing pets' ashes into the surf, even though San Diego law otherwise requires scattering them three miles out at sea. It traces the beach's origin in a nineteen seventy-two fight, when Ocean Beach dog owners resisted the city's leash law and won this quarter mile of sand as one of the country's first official off-leash beaches. You'll hear about the volunteer group that has kept it clean ever since. Kneel at the waterline early on a weekend morning to see the ritual for yourself.