Pacific Beach, last beach walk

May, 2024

After that interesting morning walk on the beach (with the ghost ship in the fog and other fun stuff), I enjoyed a quiet little lunch and a very uneventful nap in my trailer. When I finally got myself up and out of the trailer in order to take my last afternoon walk here, it was a glorious day! Still cloudy in part, but also clear blue skies in parts, depending on the wind way up there in the sky.

It was a wonderful, easy walk.

Just 50 feet or so north of my campsite there was easy access to the beach.

 

At first I thought the depression in the photo below was made by humans, but as I looked around there didn’t appear to be signs of humans except for one set of footprints that were simply going past the depression. At the end of my walk this afternoon, I checked in at the park Ranger station and found out that the depression is natural, kind of like a sink hole. Any time it rains (or the tide comes in that high), there’s a pool of water there that drains straight down into and through the sand rather than running down/across the beach to the ocean. Then another Ranger joined the conversation and both decided to cordon off the sink hole so no one could walk within 20 feet of it as some of these drain holes have been known to simply open up into a chasm without warning. Zounds! More weird stuff. They weren’t kidding me … I saw them less than an hour later walking out with stakes and mallets and large rolls of red/orange warning tape.

BUT … before I talked with the park Rangers and while I was still on the beach, I came across the small rivulet of water (below) making its way down from the hill behind it, down to the ocean. This one, in the photo below, didn’t make it all the way to the ocean. It simply got absorbed by the sand.

But THIS one (below) did make it all the way to the ocean. This one was further north than I had walked before. It’s not on any map (paper or online) that I could find. Maybe it’s another Joe Creek in the making, in its early stages.

Here’s the hill/land (below) that feeds fresh water to these rivulets. It’s quite a bluff or cliff, with the face of it close to straight up and down.

I wouldn’t want to build a home up there. Obviously, parts of the cliff have fallen off in the recent past, and probably have been doing that for thousands of years.

But below those cliffs, and above the high tide line, were lovely grasses and other plants.

At a few points along the way, there were berms of sand on which drift wood had collected, and even a few trees were growing.

Eventually, I turned to walk back south, heading back down to the campground at the town of Pacific Beach. What a beautiful afternoon, especially compared to the fog and wet and cold and wind this morning.

On the walk southward, I began noticing the different sorts of patterns and formations in the sand. I hadn’t noticed these the whole week I was here. They were fascinating.

 

 

 

 

I know which one of these sand photos is my favorite. Which one is your favorite?

And, of course, there was the ocean …

 

 

Back at my campsite, I then chatted with the park Rangers (as mentioned) about that sink hole, and about the holes in the sand that spurted water from them on this morning’s walk, and other things too. I always thank those people for what they do for all of us … for all of their work and their care and their willing communication with us that results in the rest of us getting to enjoy so much beauty that’s available in and around so many different campgrounds.

And then evening approached. I took the first photo below about 90 minutes before I took the last photo below. Notice the sky … that’s how quickly the clouds cleared out. It wasn’t particularly windy right down on the land where I was. I guess it must have been very windy higher up in the atmosphere.

Another beautiful sunset in paradise.

This was a fabulous week! One of my very favorite camping weeks. I’ll hitch up and head home tomorrow morning.

I sure appreciate that I’m able to do this, financially, and that I’m able to do the physical work necessary to go camping with a trailer. I also appreciate the state park campgrounds and employees and volunteers, and state and federal government agencies that provide these extraordinary ways for all of us to see the real world and who keep these areas as pristine as possible. I always scout around my campground before I leave and pick up the smallest of debris whether it’s mine or not. That might be a small thing in the larger picture of what damage could be done to our wild areas, but I’d like this area, and all areas like this, to be enjoyed by generations of people to come. We all have to do our part to make that happen. Our world is so precious.

Happy trails, everyone. 🙂 Thank you for riding along with me on this adventure.