In preparing for a brief overnight transit through San Clemente, California, we searched Google for walking attractions. On Google we found something called the "San Clemente Beach Trail," with hints of interesting stairways at several points along its length. The morning after we arrived, we had enough time to explore almost two miles of the Beach Trail. Along the way we were terrifically excited to "discover" several stairways connecting the beach and the Beach Trail to the neighborhood high above.
The trail was full of walkers and runners (and their dogs) on a midweek morning. Every so often Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, or a Metroliner commuter train would make our pulse race as it blared by at high speed just a few feet away. There were also many walkers and runners on all five stairways we encountered. Here's some of what we saw: