Visitors left 250 ‘love locks’ at scenic SLO County spot — and carved graffiti into trees
State Parks has removed about 250 padlocks from one popular San Luis Obispo County spot.
Visitors and locals attached the so-called “love locks” to a cabling that runs between posts on a scenic overlook alongside Cambria’s Moonstone Beach boardwalk.
Dan Falat, superintendent of the state park district that includes the Moonstone Beach area and boardwalk, said that placing the locks on state park property is illegal.
Plus, he added, the locks are an attractive nuisance that can prompt other environmental defacing.
He said that people have carved graffiti into the trunks and bark of cypress trees near the former location of the love locks.
While locks can be removed, albeit at a cost due to the staff time required, carvings into bark don’t heal, and sometimes the trees don’t survive.
Family leaves locks at Moonstone Beach to celebrate weddings
Erin Jennings, who splits her time between Cambria and Visalia, said she heard about the love locks at Moonstone Beach through a Cambria tourism Facebook page a few months ago.
“Since we hadn’t seen these, we went looking for them,” Jennings recalled.
“I thought, ‘What a special way to commemorate a special occasion with your loved one!’ ” she said. “This past Valentine’s Day, we made an event out of going with our daughter and son in-law along with another couple to place three locks.”
According to Jennings, those locks commemorate three marriage dates.
“My husband and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this June,” she explained. “Our daughter was married in 2018 at the Cambria Pines Lodge. And the other couple couldn’t have the wedding of their dreams this past year due to COVID(-19) restrictions but had an intimate ceremony instead.”
What are love locks?
According to Wikipedia, the practice of attaching padlocks to bridges, fences and other structures to symbolize unbreakable love has proliferated across the globe since the 2000s. Frequently, the sweethearts’ names, initials or messages are inscribed on the padlocks, and the keys are thrown away.
That’s prompted concerns from authorities who view the love locks as litter, vandalism or environmental damage, depending on the location.
People started placing love locks on Paris’s Pont des Arts bridge around 2008, placing a 45-ton strain on the bridge’s infrastructure that resulted in the collapse of one railing in 2014, Newsweek reported. About a year later, city officials took down an estimated one million love locks.
When municipalities, parks and other property owners remove love locks, they’re usually discarded.
But State Parks is hanging on some of the locks that it removed from the Moonstone Beach cabling until mid-April, so people can retrieve them. That unusual move was prompted by the volume of social media comments posted about the locks and their removal.
Jennings said she plans to retrieve her family’s love locks from State Parks.
State Parks warns against padlocks on public property
Falat has a message for people who want to leave up love locks.
“Please, please don’t put locks on anything on state park property” or any public property, Falat pleaded. “They can alter or block the spectacular views that visitors want to enjoy here.
“Leave your temporary symbol of your love on the landscape instead: Take pictures and selfies after you draw a sketch or message in the sand, or plant your footprints there.”
He reminded everybody, “You should always leave a natural area as beautiful or better than you found it.”
If you left a lock at the Moonstone Beach overlook, call 805-927-2026 to make an appointment with a ranger.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 2:08 PM.
