Saturdays at sunset. Same fire.

Season one: December Saturdays

1. Saturday, December 5 · First fire · sunset 4:43 PM
   All ages. Bring a chair, a friend and something to roast.
2. Saturday, December 12 · Skill night · sunset 4:44 PM
   Bring one thing you can show someone in ten minutes, or come to learn one.
3. Saturday, December 19 · Age night · sunset 4:47 PM
   Every decade gets a corner of the fire. All ages still welcome.
4. Saturday, December 26 · Neighbors night · sunset 4:51 PM
   Meet the people on your side of town. Find your block, then mix.

Sunset times from the Griffith Observatory 2026 table ↗, worked out for Griffith Park. December 26 is the Saturday after Christmas, so expect a smaller fire. Season two goes up here before the last December fire.

Add the Saturdays to your calendar

The game around the fire

• Streaks. Check in on Saturdays in a row. Miss one and it starts over.
• Crew firsts. Here with people? One of you starts a crew, the rest tap in its four-letter code. Every combination of people that has never checked in together before is a first, and so is the first crew of each new size.
• Group size. The page tracks the biggest night and the biggest crew, and marks the first nights that reach 10, 25 and 50 check-ins.
• Ring vs ring. Two pits run side by side. Check in at the one you’re sitting at. The ring with more check-ins wins the night.
• Themed nights. Each Saturday has a theme and one optional tap-to-answer question. Answers show only as counts.
• Badges. Every streak, first, record, ring win and theme night has a badge. The art is on its way; until then each badge is a plain stamp.

Boards

Streaks

Firsts

Records

Ring vs ring

Themed nights

Badges

• FsFirst spark
• TiaTwo in a row
• TiaThree in a row
• WsWhole season
• NcNew combination
• BcyBiggest crew yet
• TatTen around the fire
• TatTwenty-five around the fire
• FatFifty around the fire
• RwRing winner
• FfFirst fire
• SnSkill night
• AnAge night
• NnNeighbors night
• NitNew in town night
• ScSong circle
• BnBuilders night
• PcnPickleball crews night

Theme rotation

All ages are welcome every night. Themes are a reason to come, not a door.

• First fire: All ages. Bring a chair, a friend and something to roast.
• Skill night: Bring one thing you can show someone in ten minutes, or come to learn one.
• Age night: Every decade gets a corner of the fire. All ages still welcome.
• Neighbors night: Meet the people on your side of town. Find your block, then mix.
• New in town night (next season): Moved here this year? Come meet people who know where the good tacos are.
• Song circle (next season): Bring an instrument or just your voice. Quiet enough to talk over.
• Builders night (next season): People making things with AI, code, hardware or their hands. Show one thing on a phone.
• Pickleball crews night (next season): Bring your crew from the courts. Paddles optional, stories required.

Got a theme? Send it in. Skill night is also a University of El Segundo class: how to teach one thing in ten minutes, and the math behind crew firsts.

Rules at the pits

Checked November 3, 2026. Each line links to the page it came from.

• About 40 fire pits sit on the sand in front of the Dockweiler RV Park and the first two lots off the Imperial Highway entrance. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“About 40 fire pits are on the beach in front of the Dockweiler RV Park”
• Pits can’t be reserved. Whoever gets there first uses them, so the first few people out hold two pits side by side. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“Fire pits are only available on a first-come, first-served basis.”
• Bring your own wood or charcoal and a lighter. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“you bring your own charcoal or wood and a way to light them”
• Fire stays in the pit. No fires, grills or flames on the sand, and don’t bury a fire with sand. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“No grills, grilling, or flames or fires on the sand.”
• No alcohol and no glass on County beaches. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“NO Alcoholic beverages”
• No dogs or other pets on the beach. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“NO Animals allowed on the beach”
• Groups over 50, and organized events, need a County permit. This page is an informal neighbors’ meetup with no permit yet; if it grows past 50, it needs one. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“Permits required for groups over 50, and any organized parties, events, and activities.”
• The lots off Imperial Highway close at 10 PM, so check-ins close then too. The County’s page with that time is from 2017. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · August 17, 2017“can stay until the lots close at 10 p.m.”
• In winter the Bluff lot by the Youth Center charges $3 from 4 to 6:30 PM on weekends. Rates for the Imperial Highway lots weren’t on the County’s pages we read. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · undated page, read Nov 3, 2026“4–6:30 p.m.”
• The pits were pulled for air quality after the January 2025 fires. The County’s fire pit page now lists about 40; check that page before you drive. fact LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · January 17, 2025, updated June 23, 2025“The fire pits have been temporarily removed from Dockweiler State Beach due to ongoing air quality issues.”
• Air quality rule for beach wood fires: they’re only allowed when the coastal PM2.5 forecast is 100 or less. On a worse night, bring charcoal, which the rule doesn’t count as beach burning. fact South Coast AQMD, Rule 444 ↗ · amended July 12, 2013“PM2.5 AQI of 100 or less has been forecast for the coastal source receptor area”
• South Coast AQMD issues No-Burn Alerts from November through February. Call 866-966-3293 or use the South Coast AQMD app before you light up. fact South Coast AQMD ↗ · read Nov 3, 2026“Alerts are issued each year from November 1 through the last day of February.”

Bring

• Firewood or charcoal and a lighter.
• Chairs or a blanket, a warm layer and a flashlight. December nights on the sand get cold.
• Something to roast, and a bag to pack out your trash.

Getting there

The pits are at 12001 Vista del Mar, Playa del Rey, off the Imperial Highway entrance at the north edge of El Segundo. From town it’s a walk or a ride up the beach path, or a short drive. The County says the nearby lots have over 1,200 spaces. LA County Beaches and Harbors ↗ · updated August 20, 2026

Backup plan: if the pits are all taken, the rings move to the next free pair along the row and the first person to check in says where. If air quality rules out wood that night, bring charcoal.

How check-ins work

• No sign-in. Your phone gets a generated fire name, like Ember Pelican 42. Nobody types a real name, so the boards only ever show fire names.
• Check-ins only work on fire nights from 3:30 PM to 10:00 PM. It’s an honor system: check in when you’re at the fire.
• Stored: a scrambled copy of the random token your phone keeps, your fire name, head counts, your ring, crew code and any themed-night answer. No phone number, email, location or IP address.
• Clearing your browser’s storage starts you over with a new fire name.