Tag Archives: beach

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Beach, Big Sur Coastline

Image August 20, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rocky beach near Willow Creek, rugged Big Sur coastline

The color of the ocean varies immensely along this California Big Sur coastline. The causes are varied. The water reflects the light, and that light can be dark and dramatic, soft and misty, or bright to the point of brilliance. The surface of the water, affected by wind and weather, has an effect — the water can be rough and textured or nearly glass smooth. The depth of the water and what lies beneath change the color — rocks, sand, kelp beds.

I’m fascinated by these locations, often in small bays, where the water is much lighter, a color that reminds me of lakes below glaciers. My theory is that in these locations the water is not very deep, and that the bottom must be sandy. In some spots I think that runoff or the action of waves on the shoreline may add sediment to the water. The little bay in this photograph is a spot where I often pause along this coast. But this time, as I returned from the southern endpoint of this day’s drive, I stopped before I arrived there and photographed it from a distance.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Beach, Mouth of Little Sur River

Image August 12, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloud shadows on water as fog dissipates above Point Sur and beaches near the outlet of the Little Sur River

In many locations along the Big Sur coast on this mid-summer morning, the fog was breaking up as I drove south from the Monterey area, heading for the newly reopened section of the Pacific Coast Highway near the small town of Gorda. I stopped as I came to this familiar sight — a place where the road descends and provides a series of evolving views of the beaches near the mouth of the Little Sur River near Point Sur.

As the clouds begin to thin, alternating bands of light and shadow move across the landscape, and from moment to moment this changes to scene. I tried to time this photograph for a moment when key features of the landscape were illuminated — the curving beach, sections of the shallow ocean, and some of the more distant headlands.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Ocean, Clearing Fog

Image July 24, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fog clears over the Big Sur coastline near Point Sur and the Little Sur River

It has been over a year since big landslides and bridge collapses during the very wet 2016-17 rainy season completely closed the Pacific coast highway though the rugged Big Sur region below Monterey. It is the nature of this roadway, which in places clings precipitously above the ocean, to suffer regular closures, but most of them are quite temporary. This time, however, two of them were quite major. A bridge just south of the town of Big Sur lost its structural integrity when one of its support columns slipped — it had to be knocked down and a new bridge constructed. That bridge opened up months ago, giving better access from the north — and letting me get to my favorite Big Sur Bakery! But another slide much further south, near the small town of Gorda, presented much bigger challenges. A good part of a mountain slipped down into the Pacific, creating a major engineering and construction issue.

The good news is that the route re-opened this past week. I decided to wait past the weekend — with its inevitable tourist traffic — and head down there today. I went as far as a few miles beyond the southern slide before turning around to retrace my route back to the north. (One unfortunate realization – the Monterey Peninsula has now become a virtual suburb of Silicon Valley, with traffic jams and the works. Even on a Monday, when the weekend crowds are gone, there were just too many people on the coast highway by the middle of the day as I started my return trip.) I made the photograph at a location I’ve shot many times before, the outlet of the Little Sur River near Point Sur. Each time I go here I look for new overlooks, trying to find a slightly different view of the scene, and today I tried several new ones. Bonus: On a July day when temperatures inland were in the ninety degree range and higher… coastal fog dropped the temperature here to the low sixty degree range!

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Shoreline And Spray

June 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spray from surf mutes a rocky Northern California shoreline scene

This rocky and exposed beach, open to the Northern California Pacific Ocean, first caught my attention as I headed north on the first day of my visit to redwood country. I had made the long drive up the Central Valley, the long traverse out to the coast at Eureka/Arcata, and then traveled further north to the redwoods on my way to my final destination in Crescent City. Perhaps unexpectedly, in many spots along this coastline you don’t actually see the ocean or the shoreline itself — the route tends to be inland a ways and/or travel through forests. So when the road came around a bend near sunset and arrived at this spot, where the waves are literally only feet from the edge of the road, it made quite an impression. I stopped briefly but did not see a photograph at that time, and I travelled on.

Several days later, as I departed the Redwood National and State Parks area (and after making a final stop at Prairie Creek State Park), I again came down a hill to this beach. I stopped again, but this time the conditions were quite different. There was active surf coming onshore, and the waves had stirred up a thin, low fog that hugged the coast. Overhead higher clouds indicated the passage of a weather front. From this spot it was easy to see how littered this coastline is with the boulders and sea stacks that are left behind as the ocean erodes the shore.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: beach

Rocky Beach, Big Sur Coastline

Beach, Mouth of Little Sur River

Pacific Ocean, Clearing Fog

Rocky Shoreline And Spray

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.