.... It's a non-historic state beach. ....
Ahhh, well I have an attachment/link, from a state of CA park's personnel, that says it's ok on state beaches here. NOT THAT WE NEED AN EXPRESS "YES" in the first place. But ... just showing how arbitrary /whimsical this can be.
Technically, yes, the state park's dept here has "cultural heritage" boiler plate verbiage.
Yet nothing specifically saying "no md'ing". Thus, technically ... you're ok as you don't find "artifacts" (ie.: stuff/coins over 50 yrs. old). Presto, I never find anything old. Do you ?
As for the rangers who scrammed you : I have a sneaking suspicion of how that came-to-be on their radar. Care to take a guess ?
And so too has there been a very small handful of "scrams", from perhaps 6 or 7 state beaches here , in all of CA. In all the time I've paid attention to this (ie.: any posts or stories that circulate).
And in each case, they've always turned out to be flukes. Eg.: No one ever hears "boo" again,
even at the same beach. Ie.: ... it's just a singular ranger , or singular beach to avoid.
And the WORST thing that someone could do now, is go to fight-that-scram, and seek clarification. It could bring about an official stance. Thus ... best left to "isolated flukes".
If you wanted to hunt that exact beach again, and feared those same 2 guys, I can give you an email saying "yes" from a state park's district head-top guy, for you to print out. And, oddly, you don't even need anything from park's code saying that you're ok . Because the mere fact that they alluded to "artifacts" (by their own statements), is your "out". Since that is defined as old objects.
Have Tom write a note for you to give to the rangers next time they try kicking you off... He will set them straight.
haha