Big Sur Coast, California

  Dogpile!! Elephant seals at Piedra Blancas Elephant Seal rookery, CA.
Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole

Sunday we drove to Big Sur for a couple of days of camping. First, we went to Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals! This is a rookery where they mate and give birth, and later return to molt, so you can see the seals almost year-round. This is the time of year when subadults and females return to molt. This shot looks amazingly similar to Sonoma Coast State Beach where I camped with Paige and all of our kids a couple years back!

There were only 1 or 2 big daddy-o's (maybe none?) but there were some cantankerous guys who would rear up at one another and get in eachother's faces. It was quite entertaining to watch. I suspect they were subadult males "practicing" their fighting.

A video of the elephant seals. They made the funniest noises! I don't think the video actually captured the sounds they make, though... 

I have to say, I think the elephant seals were much cuter than I thought they would be! I have seen photos of them and always thought they were rather hideous, but had never seen elephant seals in the wild before. They have those big funky noses, but they are actually super cute! I had a permagrin and could have watched for hours.

When we first arrived, I looked over the cliff edge, and these ones were really close. This one in front was adorbs! Something about her just tickled me.

The seals were in various stages of molting. We stayed about an hour and watched. I could have stayed for hours!!

Wendee feels happy and peaceful  by the sea!! (And, she likes to talk about herself in third person)

This is a shot of the ocean from a random roadside stop. It was really gorgeous and dramatic. The ocean was incredibly blue, also.

A shot of the cliffside from a roadside turnout. By the way, all these are iPhone photos... I have a ton more on my Canon camera that I haven't even downloaded, but I'll upload the best ones when I get a chance.

The view from the Nepenthe restaurant.

We ate dinner here, a restaurant overlooking the Big Sur cliffside and ocean. From their website: "In Greek, Nepenthe means "isle of no care," a place to find surcease from sorrow. So it continues to be for travelers today. A place to stop, to dream, to lift a cup to kindness." 

Miranda and I at Nepenthe. I love this photo!

Bob and Miranda at Nepenthe.

I took this photo at Nepenthe of the ocean. There was a darker blue line on the horizon that made the sea look surreal. Then I instagrammed it, making it even more artsy!

We camped at the Riverside Big Sur campground (all the state parks around were already booked by the time we made our reservation). This is the cute little tent that I brought with me... it was a "Scout" tent and thought it "fits two" it actually was a bit too short for me - ha ha. But I managed. 

We had a site right next to the Big Sur River. It was very peaceful to hear the gurgling sounds of the gentle creek as I fell asleep.

On Monday, all three of us went to look for condors where we thought they may be hanging out. We stopped at Pfeiffer Beach, which was gorgeous!

It was really cool watching the waves crashing through this giant rock just offshore... it's called Keyhole Rock.

This isn't a great photo - the sky was cloudy and foggy until about 3pm - but I thought these trees were very cool looking. This was on the short hike to Pfeiffer Beach.

Another view of Pfeiffer Beach

We took Bob back to the campground and Miranda and I explored a little. We went back to Nepenthe for a latte and soup, and then went to another park to hike. We took a 1-mile hike to the beach at Andrew Molera State Park, which took us through this beautiful California chaparral.

A creek we passed on the way to the beach. In fact, right at the beginning of the hike we had to take our shoes off and cross the freezing-cold Big Sur River!

The skies cleared right as we started hiking, so we were able to enjoy the ocean waves with a clear blue sky... I sat on a rock for a while and just listened to the sea.

Another shot of the ocean from Andrew Molera State Park

We got back to the campground around 5pm, and made our camp dinner and then... Smores! Because it wouldn't be camping without S'mores!

And a blazing campfire! Miranda and I stayed up talking about life long after dark.

Peace out! Headed back home... hasta luego!

Elwha dam removal!

Sun star! The sun through the trees on a trail to a viewpoint over the former Elwha dam site. Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Holtcamp

Last week was PERFECTION in every way, and this week Murphy has gone crazy!!! I have to make this short, because I have to post and caption all these images for my editors, file my story on the Elwha dam (link to come soon, I hope), and then pick my son up from his day camp job and then we are headed to the Central Oregon Coast for the weekend. A much needed break from a hell week in which my poor sweet cat is dying back home, 3,000-miles away and I can't do a damn thing other than rely on my friends and my daughter (I LOVE YOU GUYS!!) to take care of her. She is not doing well and very well may not make it. To make it worse, I feel terrible as I probably killed her myself from bringing in my beloved stray Pippin...

At any rate, that on top of PMS, communication breakdowns, and every technical difficulty with phones, GPS, internet and technology in general under the sun you can imagine... but LAST week was so perfect and fun in every way! The short version is, we arrived in Oregon, spent a couple days with my dad and Bev, I dropped Sam off at his overnight camp and then I headed to Washington. I first visited friends in Seattle, and got an awesome tour of the city with Laura (I will post pics on my next blog, promise!). The highlight was seeing the very first Starbucks, ever! And then I headed to Olympic National Park where I camped in my friend Terri Hansen's RV at Salt Creek campground, soaked in the Sol Duc hot springs, and got to interview several biologists and go see the former Elwha dam site and the Glines Canyon dam which is partly out and coming completely out soon. I'm writing an article for Nature and just got another assignment today. It was just an awesome time there, with lots of laughter, total peace of mind, new friends, and just a really great time. I am posting images from the Elwha trip and will post more in a couple few days! Here's a link to the blog post from my visit two years ago when the dams were still up.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the finished article at Nature News online: Fish return to undammed river.

First we went to the site of the upstream Glines Canyon dam, which is partly but not totally removed. This is a view showing Lake Mills, which is slowly being drained and will be gone eventually once the dam comes out completely. It's scheduled for demolition of the remaining parts beginning again on July 2nd. They are in a "fish window" now where there's no blasting or dam removal activities that could affect water quality since fish are spawning.

Another view of Lake Mills. Not sure what this structure is - I'll find out. Oh ok it is the "intake tower."

Another view of the Glines Canyon dam, partly removed.

When you look over the edge from the platform, the water makes a rainbow!

I laid down and shot this over the edge. What a high! Love it. You can see the rainbow at the top of the canyon wall on the top part of the image.

Next we went to the lower (downstream) Elwha dam, which is now completely gone! Lake Aldwell used to be here, but is fully drained, and they are grading the riverbanks and have begun replanting native vegetation.

Another shot of the tractors and backhoes or whatever they are called grading the banks post-removal.

This is the Elwha river near the former Elwha dam site.

A pile of contaminated soil at the dam site, waiting to be removed and shipped off. I'm writing an article about this but the dam itself and its structures had some contaminants.

Then I took a short trail to an overlook where you can see a bigger view of the former Elwha dam site. Pretty cool! Barb Maynes, the Public Information Officer for National Park Service/Olympic NP on the project said it's interesting to stand there and listen to the various conversations about the dam.

This is the view from the end of the trail of the Elwha dam site activity.

Another view.

A fern on the trail.

A view through the woods of the former Elhwa dam.

The next day, I went out in the field with several scientists to take turbidity data in a tributary (actually, it was technically a floodplain channel) of the Elwha. We met at the tribe hatchery building, and this is a shot of a snow-capped mountain in the distance on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation.

Another view of the mountains in the distance, from a road in the reservation.

In the channel, this is Chris Curran with US Geological Survey, Matt Beirne a biologist with the Elwha tribe, John McMillan a fisheries biologist with NOAA and Jeff Duda with USGS. The USGS guys were teaching the others some techniques to monitor turbidity, and calibrating for some sampling error or somesuch. (Earlier, I mis-identified Chris C as Chris Magirl - sorry! They both were out with us that day)

I believe this is USGS hydrologist Jeff Duda walking in the tributary.

Me in my waders. Sexy huh? Just kidding! LOL. I don't like this photo of me, but whatevs.

Matt, Chris C and John in the channel.

NOAA biologist George Pess in the channel with some turbidity equipment.

This is a view from the campground Terri and I stayed at - gorgeous isn't it?

The Sonoma Coast

The Sonoma Coast, California. Copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp

On Thursday, we left San Francisco and drove to Sonoma Coast State Beach, which I'd preselected and reserved based on recommendations online from Yelp and other review sites. A lot of campsites near the Bay Area were already sold out two months ago when I made the reservations! I found this one, which still had sites available, and it had positive reviews. The state park/state beach has two campgrounds - Wright's Beach which has no showers and Bodega Dunes which has regular toilets and showers so I picked that one, naturally. :) Paige stayed in San Fran a little longer than we did because she wanted to take her kids to see the Gertrude Stein exhibit at the MOMA and I took my kids on a slower drive up the coast via Highway 1 which winds through Marin County and up to Sonoma County. Me and the kids visited the southern part of Marin County when we went to see my best friend Daline at Green Gulch Zen Center in 2007 and we also went to Muir Woods, Muir Beach and then Yosemite (See photos from the Bay Area and my kids crack me up!). I love Marin County! And Anne Lamott, one of my favorite authors of all time, lives there. But I was excited to go further north and see what was there. It turned out that the windy Highway 1 coastal route was a bit longer and the state park was generally further north than I originally realized, but it was 'all good' as the kids and I arrived at the campground within minutes of Paige and her kids despite them taking the fast route after the MOMA and stopping to get groceries for camping! Serendipity!

As we drove, Sam kept seeing some flower that "looked like a tulip, only different" and yet he'd see it and we didn't have time to stop. Sam likes plants and gardening so he notices stuff like that. Savannah, not so much. So at one point he saw one at a place we could stop and I got out and shot some pictures. And then I noticed a couple of hummingbirds flitting around, sipping nectar from the flowers. Very cool! I don't know the species - does anyone recognize it? Maybe a ruby-throated hummingbird? They had a brilliant reddish-orange neck but the photos I shot didn't capture that color, unfortunately (UPDATE - a friend identified the species as Anna's Hummingbird - a new one for me!). There is a lot of agriculture and farming in the Sonoma Valley and in Marin too- obviously vineyards but also I saw a lot of tomato trucks driving through, and citrus groves. We also saw cattle grazing and I would remark to my kids, "Look! Wild Cows of California!" which really made Sam mad for some reason - "Mommmmm!!! They are NOT wild cows!" LOL!

Our next stop was the town of Bolinas, which is a bit off the path from the main Highway but we were hungry and I used my Droid Yelp App to find a good place to eat, and it recommended the Coast Cafe in Bolinas and I gave the kids a choice to go there or keep going a bit and visit the tule elk in Point Reyes National Seashore. They picked Bolinas. I had been through this whole Marin County area with my ex-husband and the kids back in 1996 or 1997 when he was talking at some conference. We brought Savannah and we stayed at some B&B and I got the flu and remember that she called the B&B the Flower House because it was surrounded by flowers! Wish I remembered where it was exactly. At any rate, on the way to the town, we pass by Bolinas Lagoon where I remembered there were harbor seals and sure enough, there they were! It was right across from the Audubon Canyon Ranch Preserve that I wrote about for Animals Magazine in the profile of an octogenarian mom turned bird researcher Watcher of the Herons - back in 1997 after we visited. I didn't have time to stop by the preserve again unfortunately! But we did see the cute harbor seals!!A closer view. I could watch wildlife for hours! I love how they look like they're smiling in some photos. We got to the Coast Cafe starving and Sam and I split the local halibut fish & chips and it was sooooo good. It was flaky and mild and the battering reminded me of the way they do it in Australia. I got the coleslaw rather than "chips" (aka fries) and a bowl of lentil soup. The prices were a bit high but the place has local, organic food so it was worth it I guess. :)Savannah looking cute in her new hat she got in Chinatown! I can't remember what she ordered...
I thought this sign was funny!Just outside, they had a sunflower with a ginormous flower head! Sam thought it was cool. This altar was right next door to the cafe. Then we headed on!Finally we made it to the campground like I said within minutes of one another, and selected our campsite after driving around and checking them all out. We got one that had enough space for our two tents, bought some firewood for the next couple nights, and set up camp. This is the boys being boys! It was an almost full or full moon! Not a great photo (phone pic) but still gives you the general idea! Savannah climbed pretty high in a tree! We made a campfire both nights of course, and made S'mores. Paige & I shared a bottle of wine we'd bought in San Francisco and I got giggly and had S'mores ALL over my face and hands and the kids thought I was "drunk" because I was being so silly and though yes I had a bit of a buzz I certainly wasn't "drunk"! But it was pretty funny playing it up and I was cracking up. The kids had some sparklers from Chinatown. The next morning we drove north to Goat Rock Beach which is the northernmost part of the state beach. We parked and walked out onto the dunes, which had dark-colored sand. It was foggy in the morning and cool, and it gave the area a mystical feel. This is apparently one of the most dangerous beaches in California!This sign was on the outhouse/toilet. I'd read about all this in the website and brochure and sure didn't want my kids walking along the beach close to the water... However if you go to a slightly different area it is not as dangerous. A path through the dunes.Another shot of the dune vegetation in the morning fog. A shot of the ocean and beach.The water was actually very blue and the sand was very dark. I find the ocean completely mesmerizing. Sam and Wylder found a big piece of driftwood to climb on.Paige strolling down the beach with the rocky coastline in the background! She did so much to make our camping trip wonderful including bringing air mattresses for everyone, two tents (one for us girls and one for the boys) and planning two days worth of meals with very yummy and delicious food she picked up in Petaluma on the way up. Thanks Paige - you are awesome!!Sam took this pic of us all on the beach (minus him).
Sam and Savi on the beach. Wylder dragged a big stick along the beach...
And after a pretty decent walk, we got to what I was looking forward to - California's largest harbor seal rookery! It's right where the Russian River flows in so I was told by the park ranger that they eat salmon there.I wonder why they are all different colors. Some are clearly smaller and young uns, but others are larger and dark, light, brown and in between. LOVE the little brown and white one on the right. So cute!Like I said, I could watch wildlife for hours... We walked out onto this jetty and one time got splashed by a big wave but mostly we watched the seals, and they watched us. I had a telephoto lens so without it you couldn't see in this detail, but in several of my shots you could see they would lift their head up to look at us.A couple swam right over to us to "people watch"! We walked over to this other little area and I saw a flock of terns. My ex used to call these monkeybirds because when we would kayak in Lake Houston we would see them and they would squawk like monkeys. And so the name stuck. I'm not sure what species this is. A closer view. I think I scared them...After exploring that for a while, we stopped briefly at Blind Beach which is actually where the Danger sign was and so I didn't want to stay at that location long! This is a view of Arched Rock offshore from there.Next we drove down to Shell Beach where we spent most of the rest of the afternoon, letting the kids climb over all the rocks, look for crabs, anemones, and other critters in the tidepools between the rocky crevices. The tide was going out but it was not a negative tide where you could actually really see stuff (like I saw on the Oregon Coast recently!). The negative tide in August was, around 450am! This is a view from the top of the trail. There's a steep staircase leading down.A tree at the top of the trail in the fog.Amazingly enough the sky started to clear around mid-afternoon.Some of the rocky formations.Paige noticed all the different kinds of seaweeds that were on this beach. What diversity!
The boys first found a tiny orange crab. Then a bigger purple one. This is a male. You can tell because of his large pincers.
Sam is having fun exploring the rocky beach! Wylder's got crabs! Err, crab! Just teasing Wylder! :) Try as she may, Savi just looks bored. She just isn't as into nature as the rest of us!
A shot of the beach/coastline. Sitting out on the rocks, soaking up the sunshine after it came out! "Please give me some of that yummy crust from your PB&J sandwiches." After a long while, we discovered a young seal chillin' on a rock offshore.
After a little while, I was getting antsy and wanted to explore more of the stops along the way back south towards our campground. The state beach is 19 miles long and has two larger chunks, one at the south (Bodega Dunes) and one at the north end (near Goat Rock) and a long, narrow bit in between with several access points. I wanted to see them all! So Paige stayed behind with the boys since they were intent on smashing one rock into another rock in hopes of moving it - gooood luck on that... it was massive. So Savannah and I drove up the coast a bit and stopped at nearly every single stopping point along the way, including one that had a field of these beautiful succulent plants. I thought I took more photos but most of them didn't turn out so this will have to do! It was a beautiful coastline and park and a magnificent adventure!