Winter on the Sonoma Coast

I'm currently up in Sonoma county, staying with friends who rented a house at the Sea Ranch.  The dry winter continues, with high clouds, sun, light wind, and strong surf...ideal winter weather, I reckon.  This pic was taken near the mouth of the Russian River, near Jenner.

Big surf and soft, filtered winter sunshine are a good combination.

The Sonoma coast is made up largely of sandstone, which erodes into neat forms.

Winter surf at Walk on Beach.

Driftwood, Sea Ranch homes, redwoods in the background.  Viewed from Walk on Beach.  Conditions were perfect on this day...bright sun, no wind, big surf, no people.

It wasn't windy on this day, but it usually is, as this cypress tree shows.

A heron patrols the shore in late afternoon.

The trees above Gualala beach are sculpted by the wind just a little bit.

The coastal sandstone is fashioned into exotic shapes by wind and water.  Another spot with similar rock patterns is on the southeastern coast near Cape Otway, near Melbourne.

Looking through a hole in the sandstone reveals...more eroded sandstone!

Sunset at the Sea Ranch.

January in Monterey

January in Monterey is much nicer than July.  The countryside's greener; there are few fewer tourons.  The weather is more variable, with less fog and stratus than in summer, occasional storms (nice to sleep when rain's pounding on the roof), and more sunny, warm days.  We've had five days this month with temperatures in the seventies.  This rarely happens in July and August, believe it or not.  We also have a touch of winter; two days have had freezing temperatures.  And...the surf is bigger and wilder!  These surf pics were taken on January 26.  I was just going to take a quick look, but I realized that I had stumbled onto a rare combination of big waves, looming fog, and gentle winter light that was magical.  I stayed for much of the afternoon. 

Here a wave is breaching the sand berm between the ocean and the lagoon at Carmel River State Beach.  In the background, fog shrouds the neighborhood above the beach.

Point Lobos, swathed in mist as a breaker thunders ashore.

The waves crash at the Carmel River estuary with massive force.  The water is deep until just a few yards from the beach, so the waves build up more than in most areas, and then break abruptly very close to shore.  They were about 15 feet high on this day.

Winter surf has exposed some of the rocks near the lagoon. The light was fabulous...you don't get this kind of color in the summer.

Another wave crashes.  The larger breakers sent water into the lagoon, but the river couldn't quite break through to the ocean.

A thundering breaker.  Water would splash 20-25 feet in the air in the most dramatic cases.

That's fog in the background, not an impending rainstorm.  While fog is much less pervasive here in January than in summer, it's by no means rare.

Nature at her majestic best.

Tsunami?  No...but this is a good 15-18 foot wave.  The waves at the estuary tend to break simultaneously on a long front, with immense power...great for photography, bad for surfing.  You never see any surfers here.

A huge splash.  A thunderous roar. 

As afternoon deepens, the light just gets better.

A couple friends from Denver visited me earlier in the month, and we decided to splurge and stay at the Ventana Inn for a night.  This was my room.  Gorgeous, luxurious, peaceful.  Went to sleep with a real fire crackling.  The service was outstanding, the food succulent.  It's nice to be decadent once in awhile!  We'll be back.

This was the deck outside my room, with a hot tub and a hammock.  It was very nice to soak in the tub, then sloat out in the hammock for awhile.

Winter's Surf

I think winter is a far nicer and more interesting time of year in the Monterey area than summer.  Summer brings gray skies, throngs of tourons, brown grass, and small, unobtrusive waves.  All of these things are minimized during winter, and not infrequently you get a day like this one, January 6...with bright skies, mild air, uncrowded beaches, and thundering, majestic surf. 

These pix were taken at Carmel River State Beach, where the waves are usually larger and more powerful than elsewhere in the area.  There's a steep dropoff a few yards from shore which allows the waves to barrel in at full strength, then abruptly crash on the sand with massive power.  There was a high surf advisory in effect when these pix were taken.  This breaker is probably about 12-14 feet high; the crashing water can bounce twice as high into the air after the wave finishes breaking. 

The low winter sun, of course, provides nice light.  It's not a black sand beach; just looks that way with the underexposure.

Seagulls hangin' by the Carmel River lagoon, separated from the surf by a sand berm.  Pelicans also like to kick back here in between feeding forays.

At low tide, fine patterns are created on the beach by water percolating from the lagoon through the sand to the ocean.  The lagoon is about fifty yards to the left of the picture, the ocean about ten yards to the right.  If you were up in a satellite you would see patterns of erosion very similar to these, extending dozens of miles across desert regions.  But here on the beach, the area encompassed by this pic is perhaps eight feet by ten.

The winter surf has exposed these rocks at the shore.  When the river breaks through the berm and flows into the sea, it often runs right through these stones.  During the summer, gentle surf covers the rocks with sand.  I've always liked this beach...every time I come here, it looks different.  And you see various critters...gulls, pelicans, otters, seals, cavorting all over the place.  It's a very interesting spot.

Winter Surf!

Big waves crashin' at Carmel River beach today...Weather Bureau's high surf advisory lookin' good!  Haven't had much big surf this winter...it's always fun to go to this beach and watch. 

Bisbee Vibes

I visited Bisbee for a couple days last week.  It's a historic town that was a copper mining center for the better part of a century.  With the price of copper too low to economically mine it, Bisbee has turned into a tourism and art center.  I stayed at the Copper Queen Hotel, built in 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Corporation, which was one of the main players in the mining business.  It's a classic hostelry that has the only elevator in Bisbee, along with a swimming pool, restaurant, saloon, and a nice balcony (visible on the 3rd floor) that is a good spot to set a while and watch the town go by.  Copper mining has not formally ended here...if the price goes up enough, mining will resume.

The Central School also dates from around the turn of the 20th century.  Originally an elementary school, it now houses art offices.

The alternative culture is strong in Bisbee, resulting in some...interesting structures.

Central Bisbee is a mix of Victorian and Edwardian architecture.  After several fires in the late 19th century, the town was built in stone.

In my continuing search for sidewalk contractor signs, I found this one in Bisbee.

The Lavender Pit mine lies just southeast of central Bisbee.  It was excavated from around 1951 to 1975.  After Bisbee's heyday in the early 20th century, the price of copper dropped and simultaneously, the high grade ore was exhausted.  But in the mid 20th century, new techniques made it economical to mine again and this pit was dug.

This is the Warren ballpark, which has been used most of the time since it was built in 1908.  Currently high school and little league teams play here, as well as the semipro Bisbee Copper Kings.  It's one of the oldest ballparks in the US.  In 1917 it was used to detain striking miners, who were rounded up by Phelps Dodge and sent here.  The miners who agreed to go back to work were released; those who didn't were herded onto trains and deported to New Mexico with orders not to return.

Last Tuesday, heading out of Bisbee, I enjoyed  sunny weather through Tombstone, but then approached a wall of rain near Benson. 

The storm clouds begin to swallow the landscape north of Tombstone.  By the time I reached Tucson it was pouring, with fresh snow cloaking the Catalina Mountains north of the city.

Rambling in the Southwest

I'm on the road, currently in Arizona.  I always try to leave...and return to...Monterey on Highway 1, going down the Big Sur coast.  Last week I had a fine, top down day for the trip.

Cruising through the Cuyama Valley the next day, I was impressed by the stark beauty of the landscape. 

Here I'm hiking in Saguaro National Park West.  Blow up the pic and you can see petroglyphs on the rocks.  Archaeologists aren't sure whether the pictures have some religious or symbolic value, or whether the Hohokams were just doin' a bit of tagging.

As one might expect from the name, Saguaro West has many fine saguaros.  The one in the back of this pic has an especially complex array of arms.

Classic Arizona...a stately saguaro rises into a crystalline sky dappled with high clouds. 

This saguaro serves as a bird condo.  Blow the pic up for a better view of all the holes in the cactus.

A chain fruit cholla backlit by the sun appears almost impressionistic in its variety of lighting and shade.

The Lizards, of course, love the desert.  Here they're hangin' on a barrel cactus.

The woody skeleton of a cholla has an elegant design.

A closeup of a saguaro.  The cacti in the park are nice and plump...when they're filled with moisture the arms fatten and expand like a bellows.  There's been decent rain around Tucson in the latter part of this year, and a few days after this pic was taken the area was soaked with another inch of moisture.  A good wildflower season lies ahead!