Thursday, October 16, 2008

Rancho del Oso

Saturday the 27th, still as part of the birding festival, we went to what I'm currently thinking of as the most beautiful place on earth. I can't believe the 27th was so long ago! Can you believe it's already the 16th of the next month??? I could swear this was just last weekend. OYE!

Anyway, that rant aside, we started out at Waddell Beach which allegedly is a famous surfing spot. Alrighty... if they say so. My cousin is a surfer and he lives not too far from there, so I assume he's hit that spot. Judging on the surfers that were out there though, the conditions must not have been killer because they all looked like over-the-hill (literally and figuratively) surfers. Literally, because they probably were all from "over the hill" as Santa Cruz refers to the Silicon Valley and vice-versa... and figuratively because they all looked 45+ and not in great shape, one guy was using a paddle to catch his wave. Well maybe they were in great shape from a shark's perspective ;) They kinda looked like seals out there...
(click for a larger view)
Across Hwy One from Waddell Beach is Rancho del Oso. The beach is a fine place to park. As my mom noted, we saw the sun peeking over the hill and through the fog. It was pretty cool :)
It was shortly after this I saw a view that just took my breath away... it was more beautiful than any camera could capture!
In fact, whatever angle you turned a new and amazing view was beheld.


We walked along the marsh trail to the trailhead for the Skyline to Sea trail, a 33 mile (one-way) trail up to the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains at Castle Rock State Park. Along the marsh trail we saw moss growing on the trees like this:
My mom, talks a little about it in that same post. It was a cool area and I'll definitely go back again! I sure hope it still looks as good as I remember though :) Who knows, maybe it was just that day.

6 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

You really have an eye for landscape photography.
Beauiful photos Red.

Leedra said...

Does look like a lovely place. The sun looks like the halloween moon.

Heidi said...

thank you much ladies :)

Rev. James Leistico said...

thanks for the photos. My mom grew up ON the hill you refer to (a few miles east of 17 up Summit Road, near Loma Prieta), so your shots remind me of trips to my grandparents place.

Heidi said...

Oh, you're most welcome :D Nice that they lived there! Hope their house survived alright in 1989... that was a biggie. One of our members' house partially collapsed, but they were fine.

If you're in the same district as Steve Manz down in Anna, IL, next time you see him, say hi from Heidi! And if you can find a good way of saying it, also that I'm an idiot for not calling him or even emailing in the last several months.

Mary C said...

Great photos, Red. I really like your sun peeking through the fog pic -- better capture than mine.

 

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