A couple months ago, I visited a fellow wandering friend of mine in Santa Cruz. After a fantastic night of Mexican food and drink and a Toots and the Maytals show, I drove back up to San Francisco on Highway 1 the following afternoon and took advantage of a gloriously sunny day. Also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, this road is a prime example of a journey becoming a destination. On the segment between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, much of the area surrounding the highway is sparsely populated and unruly. Ragged edged cliffs give you a sense of the awesomeness of traveling along the perimeter of a continent. With a full day available, I drove slowly and pulled off the road whenever I felt the urge to explore…
In September when I was on the way back to San Francisco from Henry Cowell State Park, I’d seen a wonderful field of sunflowers. Because I was driving a van full of students, I had to resist the urge to pull over. Nearly three months after that, I was happy to see one lovely row of sunflowers still left.
Pampas grass lines the walkway to a beach. While the plumes of pampas grass have a scenic effect, they are unfortunately an invasive species that take space away from native plants. The National Park Service recommends that you do not pick them because their seeds spread easily.
If you follow your instincts and take a random turn off the highway, you may just stumble upon an gorgeous empty beach.
Birds take flight and scatter as I approach them. At one point there were so many that I knew I was bound to be pooed on, so I started running…
The Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Pescadero is closed to the public, but visitors can stay at an adjacent hostel and further explore the surrounding areas.
Warm blooded harbor seals soak up as much sun as possible before returning to the frigid sea.
The water at much of California’s beaches is too cold for those without wetsuits. But there’s more to do than surf or visually appreciate. At beaches where the edges of the coastline have crumbled to large rocks, low tide offers an opportunity to go tide pooling and view the some of the sea life swept in by the ocean.
