Standing guard on the railroad under a February sunset sky in Salome Arizona.
Standing Guard
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Tag Archives: Travel
December Big Waves
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A storm churning out in the Pacific Ocean sent huge waves into the California coast. Here on the Central Coast, the breakwater protecting the entrance to Morro Bay was an excellent place to watch the ocean swells landing hard.
You feel a rumbling sound that surrounds you. When the wave hits you can feel the ground shake. The foghorn blowing in the background really completes the maritime touch.
The swells were running 17-19 feet at the breakwater. The occasional wave a bit bigger than the rest drives some of the braver souls backward.
Quite a show mother nature is capable of putting on.
Stranded On The Rocks North of Cayucos
Friday morning, July 28th 2017, a commercial fishing boat, the Point Estero, wound up stranding itself on the rocks of Estero Bluffs State Park, north of Cayucos California.
As of today, the following Sunday afternoon, the boat is still stranded.
Edit: It is now November 6th 2017 and the boat is still on the rocks. There is now a hole in the hull and the boat sits partially submerged in the water. The owner has relinquished his rights to the boat and various bureaucratic agencies are pointing fingers at one another as to what is to be done, and who is going to pay for it. A sad end for an ocean going vessel.
Cows, California Style!
The Cow Parade SLO County produced a herd of colorful and stylized cows auctioned off and raising a quarter of a million dollars for local charity.
This girl is hanging out at the SLO plaza:
As a friend of mine says, California Style!
This cutie haunts Harmony, California:
Some of the animals appear to have been genetically altered, as this cow bear in the town of Los Osos, California:
Not real sure how I feel about that one.
Morro Bay From Black Hill
Under early morning light, looking west down onto Morro Bay California from the top of Black Hill.
Caught Without My Camera – Drat!
Following a dinner of Red Snapper at the Sea Shanty in Cayucos California, walking along the beach afterward the sky decided to do this. And of course, catch me without my trusty Nikon. So what can a guy do but grab his smartphone, shoot away, and hope for the best.
These pacific sunsets are in danger of becoming habit forming.
Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve
The Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve park protects 90 acres of coast live oak trees (Quercus agrifolia), some up to 800 years old. The park was established in 1972, and is located just south of Los Osos California off of Los Osos Valley road. A number of trails traverse the park for your hiking and viewing pleasure.
Morro Rock
Morro Rock (aka “The Gibraltar of the Pacific”) is a landmark feature on the central California coast. Formed around 23 million years ago as the plug of a now extinct volcano, it rises 581 feet from sea level. In 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer, named the rock as ‘El Morro’, which means ‘the crown shaped hill’ in Spanish. The rock was an important navigational aid for mariners for over 300 years, and at least two tribes consider it a sacred site. Today it stands guard over the entrance to the sheltered bay of it’s namesake city, Morro Bay (pop. 14,950). Morro Rock was designated a California Historical Landmark in 1968.
Penny’s Diner in Morrill, Nebraska, USA
There I was, ‘heads down’ driving from Glacier National Park in Montana thru Morrill Nebraska to points east. In a blink I drove right past this flashy, luminescent, silvery, art-deco looking diner straight out of Americana.
Now, the landscape and scenery had been pretty flat and routine for what seemed a long time along that route, so the diner really jumped out at me.
Of course I had to turn around and go back to take a few photographs.
Thoughts of the waitress serving me a piece of hot, home made apple pie ran through my mind. With a slice of cheese on it, and a scoop or 2 of vanilla ice cream, I was big time waxing nostalgic for the good old days. But, being in make-time travel mode, I thought my thoughts, shot my shots, and jumped right back on the road again.
Yeah, all right, it did take a little bit of the romanticism out of it when I later googled Penny’s Diner and found out that it is a commercial franchise chain and not a small entrepreneurial throwback.
But hey! I wish now that I HAD gone in for that piece of apple pie….
Patricks Point State Park, just north of Tridad, California, USA
The next time you are in the area of the small town of Trinidad in northern California (which is where I would live if I was living in California) stop in and see Patricks Point State Park. It’s just a few miles north on Highway 101 from Trinidad, and well worth the drive. With the fog rolling in off the ocean and into the forest, hearing Sea Lions and Seals barking from the rocks jutting out of the water, it’s quite an atmosphere.
With 632 acres in the park, activities include camping, hiking, beach combing, nature sight seeing, and more. Forest and meadowland stretch down to ocean beach front, with spruce, hemlock, pine, fir and red alder growing wild. The ocean frontage ranges from dramatic large rocky promitories and sheer cliffs, to wide sandy white ocean beach. Deer, Sea Lions and Seals are commonly seen from within the park.
With fog coming in at some time almost every day, the vegetation is lush and green. Ferns growing wild and luxuriantly. Coming from the parched drough stricken east, that really stuck in my mind.
And, if you wish for striking photography, nothing sets it up like the wild storm lighting that comes with the ocean fog filtering it.
Like to walk? With six miles of trails looping thru the park, its a hikers paradise.
This photograph was taken on the Rim Trail, about a half mile from where I was camped.