Palomino Dream : Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California

Waxing Crescent Moon

I don't typically use the word fabulous, but today, my friends, was fabulous. That's because I drove to the fabulous Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, about 45 fabulous minutes from home, with the hope of seeing a fabulous grey whale or three while doing a fabulous loop hike around the park. Sunny (fabulous). Upper 60's (fabulous). Pretty crowded for a Monday (I ignored that). The folks were well-behaved, though, and I had a fabulous time looking at the fabulous ocean and the fabulous trees and the fabulous rocks. I have already exceeded my fabulous quota for 2022 and it's only March 14 (Pi Day, which is also fabulous). Here is a fabulous photo to start things off.

I decided to grab the first available parking spot, which turned out to be facing the scene in that picture, right by the South Shore Trail. That's where I started my walk. I never spied a whale in my two and a half hour walk, but I also did not care. It was way too beautiful to entertain any thoughts of disappointment. Just for serendipity's sake, I took a photo of a sorta-kinda Pi in the sky, haha.

Use your imagination.

The South Shore Trail led me around to Hidden Beach, a small cove in a slot in the rocks with regular, crashing waves and a bed of coarse, well sorted sand pebbles and tiny shells. I tried and failed to catch a big breaker on my Smartyphone, but what the heck, I'm old and slow and this is the best I could do. I did get one pretty big sploosh around the corner, though.

After Hidden Beach, I walked the Bird Island Trail to look at the cormorants and their friends sunning on the poop-encrusted rocks before I took off on the South Plateau Trail, heading through the woods toward the park entrance.

From the entrance, I took the Carmelo Meadow Trail to Granite Point, then doubled back on that trail around Whaler's Cove to the parking area for the North Shore Trail. Somewhere in there I saw a healthy bed of Miner's Lettuce.

The North Shore Trail, maybe the best hiking trail in the park, was pretty crowded, so I didn't stop very often. I looked for harbor seals and any other big critters, but I didn't see any, unless you count humans. I kept moving, focusing on foot placement and balance on the roots and rocks and granite steps. This was a very enjoyable segment of my hike - you could say it was fabulous - all the way to Sea Lion Point.

The trails that used to let you walk all the way out to Sea Lion Point have been closed for some time, possibly permanently. I used to take groups of high school kids out there on field trips and wonder IS THIS SAFE? It was intoxicating to be out on the edge of the continent with the wind blowing and the sea lions barking and the waves crashing and the distinct possibility that I might be stripped of my teaching credential or worse if a rogue wave from the fabulous Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary decided to snatch one or more of my kids and bash them against the unforgiving Carmelo Formation turbidites. Those rocks are VERY hard and VERY rough on teenage skin and septuagenarian skin, too. It's probably just as well I can't go out there any more. I am not ready to disappear quite just yet.