Walking the Bluffs at Garrapata
As we've been to Garrapata State Park on California's Central Coast several times over the years it's tempting to think we've "been there, done that" and seen everything in the park. It turns out we haven't. It took the disappointing trail closure and poor weather during our visit this past Saturday to show us that.
In addition to the epic trails deep into wildflower lined canyons (e.g., the Soberanes Canyon trail I wrote about in my previous blog) and up over high ridges looking down on the ruggedly beautiful coastline Garrapata also has a network of short trails along the cliffs of the rugged coastline itself. In the past we've given them short shrift, only dabbling at hiking them after we come down from the high ridge trail tired and already drunk on beauty. This Saturday we had more energy as we hiked a section of the coastal trail and realized there's a lot we've been missing.
Would these scenes look more beautiful on a sunny day? Sure, they would. Did we plan to come here on a sunny day- or at least a day when the morning fog would burn off by noon? Sure, we did. But just because it's summertime doesn't mean we can predict the weather. (Plus, coastal locals call August "Fogust" for a reason.) And the foggy day has its own sort of beauty, making the sea look foreboding and the area lonely.
BTW, the scarp rock you see those two people exploring is not terribly hard to reach from the bluffs. We would've gone out there ourselves, but the area is blocked off by a simple fence and a sign asking people not to proceed as the area is undergoing recovery.
As we rounded the corner from hiking this particular section of the sea cliffs we saw an unexpected sight: a waterfall!
This waterfall- pair of waterfalls, actually- is only about 10m in from the gravelly beach. If we'd retraced our steps instead of opting to take a loop around and walk back to the car on the side of the road, we wouldn't have seen it.
But wait, there's more! Above these falls is a footbridge (cropped out of the pic above), and from that footbridge another pair of waterfalls come into view just upstream!
For this last picture I used a slow exposure (0.25 seconds) to create the silky blur effect with the water. To help achieve the long exposure I used my adjustable neutral density filter as I wrote about on another waterfall hike a few weeks ago. I carried that piece of gear in my bag just in case a scene like this appeared. ...But I didn't bring my tripod to stabilize the camera while shooting long exposures. So for this shot I set my camera right on the rocky ground in front of me and braced it there with my hand. It turned out pretty well!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/101660.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
In addition to the epic trails deep into wildflower lined canyons (e.g., the Soberanes Canyon trail I wrote about in my previous blog) and up over high ridges looking down on the ruggedly beautiful coastline Garrapata also has a network of short trails along the cliffs of the rugged coastline itself. In the past we've given them short shrift, only dabbling at hiking them after we come down from the high ridge trail tired and already drunk on beauty. This Saturday we had more energy as we hiked a section of the coastal trail and realized there's a lot we've been missing.
Would these scenes look more beautiful on a sunny day? Sure, they would. Did we plan to come here on a sunny day- or at least a day when the morning fog would burn off by noon? Sure, we did. But just because it's summertime doesn't mean we can predict the weather. (Plus, coastal locals call August "Fogust" for a reason.) And the foggy day has its own sort of beauty, making the sea look foreboding and the area lonely.
BTW, the scarp rock you see those two people exploring is not terribly hard to reach from the bluffs. We would've gone out there ourselves, but the area is blocked off by a simple fence and a sign asking people not to proceed as the area is undergoing recovery.
As we rounded the corner from hiking this particular section of the sea cliffs we saw an unexpected sight: a waterfall!
This waterfall- pair of waterfalls, actually- is only about 10m in from the gravelly beach. If we'd retraced our steps instead of opting to take a loop around and walk back to the car on the side of the road, we wouldn't have seen it.
But wait, there's more! Above these falls is a footbridge (cropped out of the pic above), and from that footbridge another pair of waterfalls come into view just upstream!
For this last picture I used a slow exposure (0.25 seconds) to create the silky blur effect with the water. To help achieve the long exposure I used my adjustable neutral density filter as I wrote about on another waterfall hike a few weeks ago. I carried that piece of gear in my bag just in case a scene like this appeared. ...But I didn't bring my tripod to stabilize the camera while shooting long exposures. So for this shot I set my camera right on the rocky ground in front of me and braced it there with my hand. It turned out pretty well!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/101660.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]