“Secret swings” exist around the world, especially in coastal areas that scream appreciation for the great outdoors. While some outdoor swings are widely known about and are tagged on maps leading you straight to them, “secret swings” are instead notoriously known for having no geotag anywhere online. The popularity of secret swings has grown and caught fire through social media where secret swing-seekers will tag the more general location and leave the viewers of the image to use the hints from the photo to find it themselves. During my first year at UC San Diego, a friend and I laced up our exploration shoes and made it our mission to find the La Jolla Cove secret swing. Using clues from Instagram posts tagged with the general La Jolla Cove geotag, we hunted around for the secret slice of paradise until we landed at our goal destination. While it would be against the secret swing code of conduct to give away the precise location, this article is designed to inform those who have never heard of the swing and guide you to discovering it for yourself.

The Cave Store is the closest landmark to the secret swing, so set your GPS to this cute shop and get driving. After you have parked, set out on the dirt trail that goes behind the shop. If you thought this article would be a dead giveaway for the location of the secret swing, I regret to inform you that you will have to discover it for yourself. What I will say though, is that once you see the bridge, you are getting much warmer. While the area you suspect the swing is might look unreachable, there are in fact ropes to guide swing seekers to the special spot.

My favorite part about secret swings besides the swings themselves is that there seems to be a communal understanding among swing-goers that when one is due for a repair or upgrade, it is swiftly taken care of before you can notice it was replaced. Thanks to general area Instagram location tags and analysis of consistent posting from a range of people, I once discovered that a swing was replaced less than 24 hours earlier and that the anchor was never left without a replacement swing suspended while in transition. While this is my general observation, I one time discovered the Scripps secret swing located near graduate housing missing for at least an afternoon. Who knew there was a secret swing community?

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