Sunday Morning Was Just Beachy

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Poor Cindy has to work five days a week and can only go play on the weekends. She has been really missing the beach, after seeing and hearing about all my fun. So we decided to head down and play along Morro Bay.  She also wanted to show me a breeding area for the endangered pipping plovers.

We went down to my favorite beach and immediately were blown away by the rising fog. As the sun came up, we saw a fogbow. Cindy had to combine two pictures to capture the view. And Morro Rock finally appeared out of the fog. And then there was the light, making everything more beautiful.

Fogbow by Cindy - she had to combine two pictures to show the actual view

Cindy posing in front of Morro Rock

The view from the beach of the sand dunes and the mountains behind them in the early morning fog

Cindy's picture of me on the beach

I saw lots of art in the beautiful light and changed my camera to the watercolor setting for some of them.

Arrangement by the tide

Just a shell in watercolor mode - loved the purple

Even the purple flowering invasive mustard added beauty when backlighted by the rising sun

 After a few beautiful hours wandering around on the beach and taking lots of pictures, we moved back north to Estero Bluffs State Park. We parked in a big pullout and walked down the partially paved trail after watching kayakers hauling their kayaks down that trail towards the beach. We had to spend the first several minutes trying to capture the beautiful, partially foggy light.

One of at least a few score of pictures I attempted to capture the amazing light -
and this is the landmark for the parking lot that 

We followed a couple of kayakers down to this beach - and saw another fogbow

Male American goldfinch feeding

Song sparrow singing

Tiny beauty dressed in fog droplets -  found this is invasive rose clover and out competes native clovers and grasses

A watercolor modification of a shoreline view as we walked north

The only banded snowy plover of about seven we found - I turned in the band pattern 

Whimbrel taking his crab to shore 

Sanderlings hunting for food along the edge of the incoming tide

The only least sandpiper I saw

Cliff swallows were racing to collect mud and build their nests

View down San Geronimo  Creek towards the beach 

We had intended to only spend a couple of early morning hours on the beach. But we had arrived before sunrise and spent over five hours before we noticed we were starving. But this was the BEST medicine for the isolation blues. And I had three miles on my step meter. Cindy walked over two miles- the longest she has been able to walk in over a year.  

Moro Rock - Half Gone But Hanging On

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Morro Rock is a one of several volcanic plugs on the California coast.  Today parts of it is a nature sanctuary and all of is a California Historical Site. But only about half of it got preserved. The rest was dynamited  from 1889 to 1969, to provide material for the breakwater of Morro Bay and the improvements at Port San Luis Harbor.  I'm so glad we kept half of it for the public to enjoy. 

I first caught glimpses of Morro rock on the way to Montana de Oro State Park and a view from the park,
partly obscured by fog

I have attempted to visit the rock several times, but have a penchant for getting distracted and following a trail, a bee, or even a view, so it took several tries to actually get there.  But I thought the second of two days might be auspicious, when I caught a rare sunrise on my way there. That was but one of many diversions, in spite of it being my second day in a row,  of exploring down the coast.

Sunrise over vineyards

My first close up view of Morro Rock was from the edge of the recreation area leading to it. Kayakers and surfers put in from the beach located in the curve in the picture below.

At the beginning of the walking tour

From a bit closer so I could exclude the diving platform

Another of my "watercolor shots"  of the north end of Morro Rock

Watercolor pictures of some of the flora

I spent a lot of time watching the sea otters - both on the way out and back in. They were just far enough out and in very bright, overhead light to make it hard to distinguish them from the dark seaweed. The sea otters were fairly close to shore but in very bright, overhead light.

There were lots of mothers and large babies. - I had a hard time telling what was otter and what was not  -
can you see the two mother/baby pairs?

Wrapped up sea otter - mothers roll them up in a floating, but rooted, piece of see grass
to keep them in place while they dive for sea urchins

The trail continues along the south end of the rock

I came upon a group of huge prickly pear cactus.  I noticed that there was something very different about some of the ears. They I noticed that they had been carved by vandals and responded with growing a kind of scar tissue.

Vandalized cactus pad

Blooms and vandalized pads

Two Indian tribes,  the Salinan and Chumash tribes consider Morro Rock to be a sacred site and the Salinan people are the only people with the right to climb it. Near the end of the trail, I spotted this gentleman in dark clothes, seemingly extending a blessing.  He stayed there for several minutes - maybe a lot more. 

Man, possibly praying

A water color picture of the amazing fragmented rocks - and praying man

The rock was quarried and some of it became this breakwater. I couldn't get a good picture because the fog was rolling in by the time I got to this spot, near the end of the trail.

Add caption

Fishing boats started to come back in through the  now thick fog, looking more like drawings than actual boats. Using the watercolor setting improved the very washed out pictures a bit.

Fishing craft

I was interested in the different plants quite high up on the rock.

This patch of yellow blooming plants made a nice contrast to the rock

A succulent growing maybe one hundred feet up.  

I caught sight of this group riding along the beach from the north and ran to get pictures

Today, Saturday, Cindy and I filled up her gas tank and went out to see what we could see. She wanted to check out some of her favorite places in Moro Bay. The best stop was at the Moro Coast Audubon Society Sweet Springs Nature Preserve. There we got a view of Morro Rock from the south west. We also enjoyed a few birds, including a mother mallard with babies,  green wing teal, and and a great horned owl.

Morro Rock from the Audubon Sanctuary

Today I saw the most cars on California highways, but the people are staying dispersed on the beaches and trails.  Hopefully we will be able to get out and enjoy the the beautiful places around here.  It certainly is keeping me happy and sane.

Visiti to Montana de Oro State Park

Thursday, April 16, 2020


Thursday was supposed to be a partly cloudy day, so I decided to do several hours of exploring.  I planned to head directly to Montana de Oro State Park and check to see what parts I could access, then explore on the way back home. The day was shortened by early morning clouds and fog, so I got off to a very late start, around 8:00 A.M. I drove under a mix of clouds, sun, and fog/haze with a few stops to check out trails and Moro Bay State Park.The park was closed at the highway, and I didn't know how far I would have to walk to enjoy the beach, so I left it for another day.

I got to the Morro Bay area as the day was brightening, but with a lot of fog left.  I threw away about thirty pictures of the first great view - a look across to Morro Rock, which is very colorful in the sun. But it disappeared into the mist in the early pictures. I finally got a better view of it as I was leaving the park in the early afternoon.

Morro Rock with the mist behaving better

I spent the first hour or so, climbing on the vegetated dunes, looking for wildflowers.  I'd look around, then drive down the road and stop again at another pull off. I found a trail all the way down to the beach and took it down and back, with many stops for photographs.

This shrub was abundant and just coming into bloom

My hike was interspersed with lots of stops to take pictures of flowers and plants, birds, views, and  a lizard.

Ice plant bud

This bold chipping sparrow let me take his picture from about twelve feet away

Another unknown

This shrub was already making fruit, kind of a cross between an apple and an acorn 

I saw my first bumblebee of the season but couldn't f capture it.  This is one mean looking fly.

This was the only one of this species I saw. 

View of Spooner's cove from a pullout above it ....

...And from the parking lot

I never knew Nasturtiums could be invasive until I started exploring the central California coast

This could be poison hemlock - comment if you know

This was a plant that looked as though it should be in a landscaped yard 

Beach morning glory

One of two adjacent un vegetated  sand dunes

I didn't go any further on the road - but Cindy says I need to go back and explore further. I also found I can hike 2-6 miles along some fantastic volcanic rocks in the bay  and view and listen to a sinkhole.  It is only about an hour away, with no stops, so it will stay in my Bucket List.

I started back across the bay, stopping to take the bear dressed in PPE with a sign thanking essential workers for their service.  I had to go past it to a turn off to another road to find a place to park. The road looked way to interesting and beautiful to not explore so I went down it for a few miles. 

Bear dressed up to thank essential workers

Clouds got better in the early afternoon

One of many beautiful views along the side road

Those green, green hills

This lupine has had lots of bee visits - the red spots are on flowers that have been pollinated

People were few and usually found singly or in family groups