Shoreline Plants and Sandstone, Weston Cove. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. October 23, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Plants grow in cracks in the sandstone along the shore of Weston Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.
On this visit to Point Lobos, a place I photograph frequently, I wasn’t quite sure what conditions I would encounter. A Pacific weather front was approaching and I thought that I might encounter dismal, overcast conditions – but I was surprised to find it mostly sunny when I arrived. Even better, high, thin clouds were approaching the coast line and soon muted the direct sunlight, which made photographing these shoreline rock formations a more reasonable possibility during the late morning.
I’m pretty familiar with Point Lobos in general at this point, having visited the place from the time I was a child. I’m especially familiar with Weston Beach (or “cove,” as I like to think of it), with its circular shape, protective rock barrier, angled sandstone edges, and large pebbly “sand.” But as familiar as I am with this location, I almost alway find something new if I look around carefully enough, and these plants growing in the angular cracks in the sandstone were new to me.
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Tom, it is almost always a “sure bet” for me. I’m especially fond of the area right after big winter storms when all sorts of interesting stuff shows up on the beach.
Dan
Yeah, Weston Beach is usually my first stop in the Reserve. You are right in that you can always find something new there. Whether it’s the worm burrows that were first described as fossil seaweed, to the limpet scars in the mudstones, to the Yellow-rumped Warblers that hunt in the intertidal this time of year, to the waves crashing over the outer rocks. You are never quite sure what to focus on, but there is always something there.