Point Lobos Chill Day

Waxing Gibbous Moon

Today was the nice day I have been trying to have for weeks. Whew! I feel better!

I don't know what has been holding me back so long from firing up Spugly and heading for Point Lobos State Natural Reserve between Carmel-by-the-Sea and Big Sur. The COVID I guess. I have been really good about protecting myself from exposure so far, so that  is part of it. And the park was closed for a while, too. But for some reason, even though I really wanted to go for the last week especially, I have held back. 

Today, though, I turned my wanderlust loose. I drove the forty-five minutes over there, paid my senior rate $9 day use fee, parked in the little lot at Whaler's Cove, and set out on a long looping walk under gorgeous, practically perfect conditions. There were several people on the trail heading up and around the north side, but everybody wore masks and they gave me plenty of room. That made things really smooth and after a while, most of them turned around to go back to their cars, leaving me in my Palomino element, alone with the beauty of creation.

I saw lots of pelicans and cormorants mostly sunning themselves on rocks, but some flying around on fish patrol. The sea otters were out in force, too, but although I could hear sea lions, I never spotted any all afternoon.

Aside from sea birds and a few little wrens, I didn't see any other live animals. At the Whalers Cabin, which was closed due to the virus, I saw the dried old vertebrae, ribs, and pelvis of a long ago harpooned whale, secured by cables to the yard circling the cabin. I cannot believe people would actually row themselves out to sea in wooden boats no bigger than a Chevy Suburban with a harpoon and a long rope to attack something that huge and haul it in to shore. Too weird for me!

I'm not really sure that is a pelvic bone. It might be more like shoulder blades. Whatever it is or was, though, it was attached to the vertebrae and musculature of a pretty big whale. And some pretty aggressive whalers fought it clear out of the ocean. Nuts!

On the south side of the park are deposits called turbidites, rock formations left behind by powerful turbidity currents, kind of like underwater avalanches. These turbidites and layered sedimentary rocks are called the Carmelo Formation locally, deposited when sea level was higher and the underlying granitic intrusions were mostly uncovered. The turbidity currents carried sand and mud and gravel down a relatively narrow area like an avalanche chute and deposited them in thick layers on top of the Santa Lucia granite. The result is a really beautiful, now-exposed scene that gets pounded and eroded by crashing waves, dominated by dark brown strata, gnarly conglomerates, with occasional hoodoos and small, black, gravelly beaches. 

I walked for three blissful clambering hours, taking a quick ten minute break for a peanut butter and banana sandwich at Hidden Beach, sitting on a bench and watching the sea otters play.

If every day was like today, I guess I would simply be in heaven. 

Peace, Love, and Paradise,

Jim