Beach Weekend

This last weekend, I stayed fairly close to home, but just far away enough to get away from the heat of Bakersfield. This weekend I took a trip to the coast and went to Shell Beach and Montana de Oro State Park. The weather was beautiful. It was nice and sunny in Santa Maria, but the beaches were foggy, as is typical of summer time. It seemed like the pelicans had taken over Shell Beach, as there were literally hundreds of them flying about and making their homes on the various rock "islands" around the shore. The air was full of the sounds of waves crashing onto shore and the cries of sea gulls. Chris and I took a walk towards the infamous Pirate's Cove (a nude beach - hehe), but we didn't actually go down there. It was a nice walk amongst the huge mansions that lined street. What a view those people must have. We spotted several lizards like this one ...





along the pathway. I even made a snare out of some wheat grass and caught one, which is something I haven't done since I was a teenager.

The next day, we headed to Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos, CA. It is a beautiful place, even in the fog. There are a lot of hiking trails in the park, if you are feeling adventurous. We took an easy trail called the Bluffs Trail, which is a long, winding, relatively flat trail that snakes its way around the bluffs and coves. There is a lot of erosion going on around there, so you can't go too near the edge, less you fall off (and trust me, that would be BAD!). We saw quite a bit of wildlife and birds around there, including rabbits, ground squirrels, quail, comorants, various other birds, and even a seal swimming around in the coves. He didn't make his presence a secret, as he was very noisy, making seal "barks" now and then. A large group of comorants was resting on some rocks, and seemed to be pretty content there, until more people came, and then they suddenly took off squawking, in what looked like black fog.

We found some tidepools in one of the coves and explored those for a while. They look like miniature oceans, full of sea anenomes, hermit crabs, starfish, sea weed, mussels and barnacles, and other snail-looking creatures. I used to love to look at tidepools when I was a kid. I think, in a way, I never really grew up, because I still like to look at tidepools, climb amongst the rocks and skip stones on the sea.

We didn't leave the beach til after 5 pm. On the way out of the park, you could see Morro Rock peeking through the fog.





It looked surreal.

I am back in Bakersfield now, and it is ONLY supposed to be 103 today. I wish I could go to the beach everyday!

I posted some more pics below, and there are even more on My Yahoo Photo Album

Destinations:

Shell Beach, CA (151 miles from Bakersfield)

Montana de Oro State Park (17 miles from Shell Beach)


Links:

Brown Pelican

Montana de Oro State Park

Sea Anenome

Shell Beach