9 November 2008

1300- 1430

Natural Bridges and West cliff, Santa Cruz, California

Today I went two of my favorite beaches in Santa Cruz. West Cliff is not really a beach but a cliff (on the west side of Santa Cruz). But it is one of my favorite place to be. It is a ledge that goes for about four miles along the ocean, so the ocean literally crashes along the rocks of this ledge or cliff. There are different spots one can look out onto the ocean from this cliff. Some are fenced off, to prevent people from falling the thirty to forty feet to the rocks/ocean. But some less precarious places have been left unfenced and I love to sit on the ledges and look. There are also path that have been created and there ae always people walking or running along this area. There is usually an abundance of surfers in some key areas where the waves are good, but the rest of the time it is just ocean for as far out at ones’ eye can see. There are variations of kelp from the pacific oceans’ famous kelp forests that has floated to the surface of the ocean. There is also many sea gulls and an occasional pelican swooping overhead. Although this is all absolutely beautiful today it had its downfall of being incredibly windy! It was horrid and the wind never let up. Luckily when I went to Natural Bridges the wind was not as bad. Natural Bridges is a ‘true’ breach. I was so nice to be back I the beach I have missed it more than I had realized. When I was a child this beach had a natural rock bridge, hence the name, where the ocean had washed an arch between the sandstone like rock, that makes up West Cliff. While Santa Cruz may be sunny and warm the ocean water is nothing like that what so ever. I tried to wade into it and nearly froze. But it was still worth it, another neat thing about natural bridges is there is a solid rock ledge that has tide pools through it. Unfortunately today there was nothing really that interesting other than a few small hermit crabs in these tide pools. But the whole beach experience has been amazing and I can not wait to come back in the winter!