page_title: Imperial Beach, California
section_title: Coastal and beach areas
hierarchical_section_title: Imperial Beach, California / Culture / Coastal and beach areas
caption_attribution_description: Español: División fronteriza Tijuana/San Diego, México. English: Tijuana view of the US-Mexico barrier steel border division fence, with children peering into California. Photo taken near the beach on the Méxican side, in the San Diego-Tijuana border zone.
context_page_description: Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico.
context_section_description: Imperial Beach encompasses nearly 4 miles (6.4 km) of beach and employs a year-round lifeguard staff. Beach volleyball, surfing and body boarding are popular in Imperial Beach with activities concentrated north and south of the Imperial Beach Pier and the Boca Rio beach break, one of San Diego County's best surf spots. San Diego Magazine identifies the Boca Rio beach break as the second best surfing location in the county, second only to Black's Beach and the Scripps Canyon area near La Jolla. The area around Imperial Beach Pier known as Pier Plaza showcases plaques placed on surfboard benches that tell the story of how the city's big waves influenced surfing from 1937 to the 1950s. Nearby Border Field State Park signifies the southernmost beach on the west coast of the United States and allows beachgoers in America to speak through the fence with beachgoers in Mexico, where the beach is called Playas de Tijuana (Tijuana Beach). The city connects to nearby Coronado, California by way of the Silver Strand, a narrow, 7 mile long isthmus. Silver Strand State Beach, a popular beach for camping, bird watching, and bicycling, is located in the middle of the isthmus and includes both bay and ocean beaches.
  The San Diego County summer tourist season brings many visitors to the city's beaches each year. For 31 years, Imperial Beach played home to the U.S. Open Sandcastle competition, the largest sand castle competition in the United States, drawing in approximately 325,000 people. The city held the final sand castle competition in August 2011, bringing an end to the annual event and tradition. The city also holds the beach front classic car show every summer and an annual dog-surfing contest. The Imperial Beach Farmer's Market, the only beachfront farmer's market in San Diego County, operates from Pier Plaza every Friday afternoon (from 2 PM - 6 PM November to March) and (from 2 PM - 7 PM April to October) offering local fruits, vegetables and community art. The South Bay Drive-in, the county's only ocean view drive-in theatre, is located just outside Imperial Beach off Coronado Avenue.
  Imperial Beach is home to Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, a National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Border Field State Park. The estuary, located off Seacoast Drive and Imperial Beach Boulevard, is home to many endangered birds and wildlife. This estuary marks the place where the fresh water Tijuana River enters the salt water Pacific Ocean. It is the largest salt water marsh in Southern California.
caption: Children looking through the border fence on the Mexican side of Imperial Beach
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2896", "Image ImageLength": "1944", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3000", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:15 12:49:40", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6541", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:10:13 15:38:36", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:10:13 15:38:36", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2827819/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "19/5", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "20", "EXIF SubSecTime": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2896", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "980", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "30", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}