This final post focuses on beach basics – surf, sand and sky with a few coastal rock pictures. It generally runs from south to north.
Piedras Blancas, California, north of San Simeon
We haven’t spent a great deal of time at Southern California beaches. But Emma Wood State Beach is a wonderful exception. It consists of a tiny, rocky beach with campsites right next to a decrepit road right next to the train tracks.
Dave photographing about ten feet from our RV campsite. Later on, a wave caught him while he was composing an image.
Pismo Beach, a quintissential beach town, has all the necessary amenities: seafood, saltwater taffy, surfboard rentals, etc. It also has a nice campground (though our solar panels were stolen the last time we stayed there.) The great thing about the campground is that only a few dunes separate it from the beach. Depending on the tides, a channel can open up, providing fun for those who are willing to wade.
Oceano Beach is a little south of Pismo. There are a lot of dunes in this area and Plovers make their nests on this beach.
A different visit with another ring around the sun.
Montana de Oro is a great place to spend a day along the coast. It has fascinating rock formations.
Heading further north along US-101, you eventually reach Morro Bay. As shown in a previous post, the town landmarks are 3 very high smokestacks. The other large landmark is Morro Rock (the large lump on the right). Surfers also hang out here.
Big Sur, California is justifiably famous. It’s worth visiting but it’s getting more difficult to reach. Winter storms and rain periodically take out parts of CA-1. When you can drive it, each turn of the road displays another small beach or dramatic falloff. It is spectacular.
Pt. Lobos State National Preserve, just south of Carmel, sticks out on a peninsula that has several beaches and overlooks. There are also sea caves.
These rocks are white with bird guano. Glad we’re not near it.
Besides the crashing surf there are the strange rock formations. Ansel Adams and Edward Weston were among the many photographers who loved this area.
You probably can’t afford a house in this area, but the famous Pebble Beach 17-mile drive is worth the $12 it now costs to drive this road.
Pacifica Beach at night.
Fort Funston, south of the San Francisco Zoo.
Point Reyes National Seashore is a huge area. It’s got a lighthouse. It has Tule elk. It has miles and miles of hiking trails and lots of beaches. It’s very remote and I’d advise spending a couple of days and maybe staying in the nearby town of Inverness.
Estero Trail, Point Reyes, when the tide is out.
Klamath Beach, CA
Jumping to the northern edge of California, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park has a coastline similar to what is seen in Oregon. Dramatic!
The Oregon Coast is fascinating and in some cases, much more accessible than the Calfornia coast. This is Simpson Beach, Oregon, on a stormy day. It has wonderful rock erosion and patterns.
Heceta Beach, Oregon
Cape Perpetua, Oregon, allows cars to drive to a very high lookout spot.
So many shades of blue
Cascade Head, Oregon, is a headland and part of it is a Nature Conservancy protected area.
Cape Meares juts northwest between the Pacific Ocean and Tillamook Bay. We took a leisurely drive around it in 2022. The mudflats and bay provide lots of entertainment.
Arch Cape, Oregon
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Ruby Beach, Oregon, is rocky, perfect for stone stacking. (Check out warning signs – stone stacking is now forbidden in some locations.)
Driving across the Astoria Bridge from Oregon to Washington.
After driving a long way up the Washington Coast, we reach my favorite romantic beach. Kalaloch is a magical place with a nearby campground that encourages early morning and late night images.
As the sun sets, this is where my Pacific Coast posts end. I hope you get out there and enjoy it yourself.
We had another California adventure over the weekend. Dave had four images selected for an exhibition titled “Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss” at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel. The exhibition featured ten artists with images that capture the consequences of past and ongoing resource extraction from our Earth. But this particular exhibition is just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg: The Extraction Project. That, to quote the Exhibition Guidebook: “…is a global coalition of artists and creators committed to shining a light on the effects of extractive industry in all its myriad forms, from mining and drilling to the reckless plundering and exploitation of water, soil, trees, marine life and other natural resources across the globe.” More than just gallery exhibitions, there will be performances, installations, site-specific work, land art, street art, publications, poetry readings and cross-media events, with artists spread out across four continents.” If you are planning to get out this summer or fall, you can look for exhibitions that will be open in 2021.
There is a huge publication related to this project: Extraction:The Megazine. We’ve been leafing through it for a while and just keep it around to remind us of what is at stake here: life on our planet.
Carmel is 120 miles south of San Francisco, a tiny town perched on the coast. A round trip of 240 miles is too much driving for us so we got a room at the Carmel Fireplace Inn near downtown and the beach. Things are really starting to open up all over and we were looking forward to a few nice meals in this charming town. We knew Saturday was going to be busy but what we forgot was how difficult parking is. Carmel was not built for a huge influx of tourists with cars. We arrived around lunchtime, too early to check in. We decided to try parking near the pretty white sand beach that has no parking lot. Eventually, we found a spot and took our peanut butter sandwiches to the beach. It was overcast and humid, typical summer weather there.
We checked in at 2 p.m. and entered a tiny room. When we turned on the gas fireplace I was a little worried that it was about 9 inches from the bedspread. Nothing to write home about, but I really liked the double door that looked out onto a pretty garden patio.
We cleaned up and rested a little, then drove over to CPA. There are still some restrictions, mostly self-imposed, on how many people can enter an indoor venue and whether or not they should wear masks. Ann Jastrab, the Executive Director at CPA welcomed us, along with the show curator, Helaine Glick. There were about 20 of us in the gallery. Four of the artists were there to talk about their work, the other six participated online.
Having attended many lectures where artists talk about their work, I was quite moved by these photographers. They discussed their work not so much from a conceptual point of view, but from a personal perspective. It wasn’t artspeak it was heartspeak. David Ellingsen photographed the decaying stumps of trees, some of which had been logged by his family. Paccarik Orue, raised in Peru, photographed the polluted waters that occur from mine runoff. The mines both provide work for and poison the people living nearby. David’s images were of Oildale, the nightmarish oil fields near Bakersfield, and two pit mines in Arizona. Other photographers recorded images from the horrendous California wildfires, exacerbated by climate change. Jerry Takigawa’s images from a series called “False Food” shows the contents of a dead albatross’ stomach, filled with plastic bits.
Nobody can totally escape what is occurring on earth. I live in San Francisco, by the ocean. It rarely gets too hot here because of our marine layer. Our air is pretty good because of the same marine layer and winds. We get clean water piped from far away Hetch Hetchy. There’s very little heavy manufacturing done in the city. And yet, smoke from the horrendous fires of 2020 poisoned our air last summer. A catastrophic drought is already affecting water distribution in California. And the city is beginning to plan how to deal with sea level rise.
After the session had finished, we rested a while and decided that walking one block to Brophy’s Tavern was the way to go. Dave had fish and chips and I had a Crispy Chicken Sandwich. Just right.
Sunday was another overcast day. We walked a few blocks down to main-drag Ocean Avenue and found the wonderful Pangaea Grill. Dave had Eggs Benedict and I had French Toast. Theis was only our second breakfast out since March, 2020. After that, we decided to go to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. We hadn’t been there since 2014. Dave was still learning his new camera and I was testing my ability to hike with a light backpack. A four-mile drive took us to the entrance which said all the parking lots were full. Point Lobos contains four or five small parking lots. If you can’t park you have to move on. Loads of cars were parked along Highway 1 and we did that too.
As soon as we hit the South Plateau Trail, we were descending through forest. It wasn’t sunny but it wasn’t chilly either. When we reached the coast, we emerged from forest onto bluffs overlooking Bird Island. There were hundreds of Cormorants with their large chicks, mostly done with fledging and just about ready to fly. But they were still looking for a handout from their parents. We also saw some Pigeon Guillemots further down the cliff, notable with their red feet and mouths.
Gibson Beach, Point Lobos State ParkPigeon Guillemots
There were a lot of people out, some families in their Sunday go-to-church outfits. It was great to see people out enjoying themselves. We walked up the coast a little way and then turned onto the Mound Meadow Trail to climb back up to the entrance. After returning to the Inn, we walked around the neighborhood, checking out restaurants. We finally decided on Bistro Giovanni. We had a nice meal there and enjoyed all the activity around us.
On our final morning in Carmel, we went looking for coffee and pastries. The pastry I found was HUGE! It was shaped like a bear claw and was as big as a real bear’s claw. It had an almond filling with bits of chocolate and more chocolate drizzled on top of it. Dave said I’d never be able to eat the whole thing which just goes to show that the man still really doesn’t know what I’m capable of. He nibbled on his paltry chocolate croissant while I chomped my way through Colossus.
We returned to San Francisco via the coast – Highway 1. Traffic was quite light because it was a Monday. It was pretty because the fogbank had retreated for a ways offshore.
We stopped in Pacifica to say hello to Stephen Johnson in his gallery. Steve has been making breathtaking images for more than 40 years now. He is helping Dave with the book he is working on.
On the last day of June, we went to Broadway Prime, a prime rib place in Burlingame with our friends, Kevin and Sue. It was a nice dinner. Then they drove us to their first house in Daly City. Sue is my oldest friend. I was the maid of honor at her and Kevin’s wedding. I remember their first place in a Lake Merced apartment. But I couldn’t remember ever being to their first home though they could remember me being there. We drove by it and I still didn’t have any memory of it. How strange memory is.
July 5 More coastal time
We drove down to Carol and Vince’s place in Half Moon Bay. Carol is Dave’s younger sister. We hadn’t gotten to spend much time with anybody at Mom’s memorial service in May, so we brought down some pictures of Mom for Carol and they took us to lunch at the Miramar. It was an overcast day, so we decided to sit outside. It was so pleasant, and we chatted away as the sun came out from behind the clouds. They had driven us there so we didn’t have our hats or sunblock. We returned home rather sunburned but it was good catching up with them.
July 7-8 A bad day and a good day
We went on our walk to Glen Canyon under a dreary gray sky, everything normal until something flew in my face and stung me in the nose. Very quickly, the pain migrated into my cheek and top of my mouth. I never got a good look at what stung me but it was probably a ground bee. Luckily, I’m not allergic to bee stings so I wasn’t too worried. By the time I got home, my cheek and lower eyelid had swelled, enough to impair my vision a little in my left eye. And I had a mild headache. So I held an ice pack on my face and watched half of a film about the Buddha’s life. That was calming.
The next started out foggy but we finally got some sun. And then we got good news: our armchair and ottoman were coming home. It had been taken to the upholsterer three weeks ago and he finished the job right when he said he would. It looks so good and is so comfortable. We are happy.
July 17 Not a great week
Dave wasn’t feeling so good. Felt crummy, stomach was tight, coughing, stuffed up. He wasn’t even interested in a slice of chocolate cake. Last Monday, he called his doctor’s office to see if he should come in. They never called him back. So he went to the walk-in clinic in our neighborhood and got a Covid test that came back negative. That was a relief. So he probably has a cold. That I caught 5 days later. Mine is different from his. His involves a lot of coughing. Mine is a major sore throat. So I’ll call my doctor tomorrow. It’s our first colds in one and half years. Obviously, we caught it somewhere near other people.That was one good result from not being inside or seeing anyone: no colds!
Marygardner's Weblog 