Followers

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Tennessee Valley Beach - Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Tennessee Valley Lagoon and Beach

Marin County is blessed with some of the most beautiful coastline in California.  The North Pacific Ocean pounds and cuts into continental plates everywhere along the coast, but Southern Marin showcases the sea with unparalleled varied vistas.  This stretch of ocean landscape is almost entirely park lands.  The Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is foremost among the ocean parks: it is the first one encountered heading out of San Francisco across the Golden Gate.

Tennessee Valley Beach is unique in it's simple charm and is accessible by hiking 1.7 miles of gently sloping trail.   Biking is allowed, and horseback riding too.

Equestrian Surf

Traveling to the sea in the morning hours between breakfast and lunch are a fair number of mothers pushing cross-country strollers, joggers listening to headphone music, hikers, and seniors walking their moss off.  And, meandering alongside the trail, a small creek also makes its way to the sea while irrigating flora and watering the wilderness.

Headlands Bridge

Bridging civilization to wilderness Tamalpais Valley is linked to the Marin County Headlands and the Pacific Ocean.
Giant Eucalyptus trees clustered in mini forests tower over the path perfuming the air with mentholated scents while rustling in the wind, whispering songs. Primeval meadows make perfect homes for coastal wildlife.

Headlands Valley

Deer make their beds in the woods along the creek and in the valley.  Coyotes may sometimes be spotted sneaking off, glancing furtively. Overhead are the occassional Red-tail Hawks.  Bobcats may be spotted on the hill above, on a lucky day.

Turkey Stroll
Wild turkey toms sometimes saunter past, strolling;  occasionally one struts his stuff impressing his hen while last year's brood looks on disinterestedly like bored teenagers watching their parents carry on...  Still, Tom shows off, puffing up and ruffling feathers into beautiful larger than life displays, oblivious to Thanksgiving.
Black Crow Sentinel

Crows are frequently claiming their territory; now and then a sentinel may be seen surveying his domain as he mounts guard on rocky outcrops.
Also in that creek are white feather flowers in radial bunches, their white petals more radiant than nursery greenhouse flowers.

White Feather Flowers

Often, the marine fog burns off mid morning, lifting in a swirl of white, revealing red bluffs and verdant foliage glistening moist.


The Fog Lifts
The rounded hills lining up the valley roll up steeply, though gently, and some mornings the moon may be seen sliding past the undulating horizon as it returns to sleep on the West.

Moon Setting
Springtime brings out the California Buttercup, which while insignificant on its own, inundates entire fields in brilliant yellow.

Seagoing Trail
Almost two miles from the parking lot is the beach.  Not a white sand beach resplendent in perennial sun, rather a rugged red pebble beach often drenched in fog and mist.  And it is small.

Fresh Water Stream
Despite a fair amount of users this beach is relatively unknown.  Still, those in the know and withing easy access make full use of it, some occasionally commemorating a loved one with a simple gesture like casting a rose to the sea.

Red Rose for Tennessee Valley Beach

The path reaches the beach to the Southwest transitioning from fertile valley to barren saline sand: a small crescent adjacent the surf.

Blue Heron Flight

The creek also arrives at the beach, by this time more like a fresh water stream emptying itself first into a small lagoon some two hundred yards inland, then into the sea. A micro ecosystem thrives in these brackish waters and Great Blue Herons are sometimes seen flying off with a belly full of crab.

Moon Over Tennessee Valley Beach

The rounded hills on the North march right into the water, shedding their soil covering when reaching shore, suddenly naked, revealing a massive solid core.  Incessant surf has barely brought down the stony intruder; yet together with rain and wind, the ocean is carving out the rock's weakness, highlighting it's strengths.



Blue Sky Oculus

The solid rock outcropping extending out of the rolling mountains and into the sea is a weather-worn wonder, a water-etched sculpture changing color with time, going from dull mat red in the morning to shiny onyx black in the evening mist.  And it has an eye.  Some improbable natural process carved a large elliptical opening smack in the upper middle of the giant boulder through to the sky beyond and when the sun set before the fog rolled in, the oculus channeled the last sun rays into a long beam, casting it on the darkening sand like a wayward lighthouse beacon.

Sunbeam on Tennessee Valley Beach

The coastline is moody and myriad scenarios play out year round.  No two days are alike; neither sand nor surf remain the same. Nor, indeed, the very rocks themselves. The light and the temperature shifts. Sounds range from a deafening roar to soothing rhythms as the ocean waves dance in response to howling winds or whispering breezes and forlorn seagull cries.

Evening Sun-rays - Alabaster Bridal Lace

Evening sun-rays shine on the horizon as waves crash and surf spreads white foam on black sand like alabaster bridal lace on the obsidian altar of the Divine.

Sunrise, mid-day, or sunset on the Pacific is an occasion to enjoy the freedom of the eternal now, forever present.

Sunset on the Pacific

Regrettably, on January 9th, 2013 the oculus/arch ceased to exist.  It collapsed and was captured on camera, crashing down, by geologist Roger Willis who happened to by hiking there at the time.  The following is a new video compilation of the crash:  http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91055&sitesection=ktxl&VID=24197449


Gentle Surf


Today, a testament to the ever changing world around us, the beach endures. Different, perhaps diminished, yet on clear winter days gentle waves may be seen rolling into white surf, beautiful nevertheless....








Sunday, October 28, 2012

Goblin Valley State Park

Smurf Goblins

Animated clay creatures populating an isolated valley near Green River, Utah pop up organically from the smooth valley floor like red goblins. Sienna-hued and bulbous, these odd figures look earthy and familiar; strangely comforting: a recurring dream inhabiting an alternate reality coexisting with ours, beguiling us to behold their surreal condition.

Some goblins stand alone, others cluster in cliquish gatherings as if conducting meetings; yet others seem to be anxiously waiting for you as if they've been expecting you for years in a state of suspended animation.

Goblin Assembly

Groups emerging from the soil, yet integral to it, seem to be holding congress, a goblin assembly discussing internal affairs.
There may be a tribal meeting.  Or large family reunions.  Each gathering representing sub-species of goblin: ethnic groups, or genetically engineered castes.

Duck-Like Goblins

Some are duck-like.  Some are Smurf-like.
Some are hooded monks chanting their morning prayers, eternally.


Hooded Monks

The entire place is a village of unworldly beings frozen in time.  Rather like an extremely slow scene with people buzzing in and out at lightning speeds: bees on a bug's life cycle and goblins dancing to their own imperceptible rhythm.

Dancing Goblins

Some goblins are distinctly upright, striking individualistic poses captured on a slow moving walk, perhaps smiling.

Solitary Goblin

The solitary goblin is the remarkable one representing his faction by sheer force of character, or unique characteristic.

Popeye Goblin

There's Popeye looking ever the weathered sailor with sunken mouth and bony cheeks.

Toothless Hag Goblin

There's the toothless old hag in extreme stage of decay, with gaunt face grinning at the sky, forever.


Big Bird Goblin

There's Big Bird Goblin walking alone.

Goblin Gone Blind

There's the bony indescribable one: a goblin gone blind.

On one level goblins could be proto-humans in various stages of development;  on another, they might be post-humans in different phases of arrested development.  Perhaps they are reincarnations of partial personalities: alter egos eternally working out issues.


Kissing Goblins

 Unresolved loves forever kissing.


Rug-Rat Baby Goblins

Or unborn souls made manifest by clay; giant heads stuck in the mud like rug-rat babies personalities.

In any case, there's a supernatural quality to this place.  Goblins, ghouls, or apparitions are lingering into modern times.  The spirit of Halloween is alive and naturally well at Goblin park reminding us, possibly, of our spectral ancestry.


Spectral Goblins

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Arches National Park

Three Gossips

Natural wonders envelop Moab, Utah.  The area is one red sandbox filled with giant toys.  Huge stone sculptures set against enormous red cliffs make up the landscape.  This is high desert; hot in the summer and frigid in winter.  Although rivers do stream, collecting thunderstorms, channeling their precious fluid to oases like Moab, the local splendor is rocks.  Geological forces made these rocks, heaving them up through tectonic plates shifting and setting them into place, while extreme weather: wind, rain, and snow,  polished and sculpted them into their latest form.

Arches National Park is most amazing of all.  The scale is monumental and it's first magnificent monument is the Three Gossips seemingly discussing the latest political intrigue and passing judgement on their hapless subjects.  They might be robed choir members but for their chiseled aspect and austere demeanor.

Balancing Rock

Balancing Rock is an enormous egg-shaped rock atop a red pillar; a Jurassic vision ensemble resembling T-Rex on the prowl.  The prehistoric predator sizes up and seizes its prey, if only it could...


Double Arches

Arches National Park, not surprisingly, has a few arches.  Naturally formed and varying in size, these red portals dot the landscape.  Sometimes they're grouped into compounds, other times isolated and discreet.

Arch


One major grouping is the Double Arches compound.  It is expansive, requiring quite a bit of walking to get a taste of the place, or vigorous hiking for hours to fully take in its scope.  Here a formation, there a sculpture, everywhere a climbing adventure.  All red.  



Spring Arch

One attraction juts out of the ground springing up and over head like an arcing liquid extrusion petrified in mid air.  Another, is a conglomerate of shapes scattered and piled into an arch-like castle.  Much like sandcastles, these sandstone piles evoke a playful hand sparking the imagination.

Picnic Area

Life makes a go of it wherever it can. Hardy trees take root in the unlikeliest of places, requiring the rare thundershower and runoff to survive.  These micro oases resembling landscaped parks prove that "life imitates art"... and make perfect picnic areas too.

Surrealist Rocks

At times, vegetation and sandstone take on a surrealist look as if rocks and trees had been Terra-formed by Salvador Dali for a Southwest Disney theme park.

Rock Faces

Rock faces really start looking like faces and pillars start resembling animated creatures.  Animism is alive and well in the desert heat.


Arches Crows

Crows thrive and eagles soar, jack rabbits hide from the full sun and lizards bore into cool sand under cover of rocks.  It's a minimal, conservative existence of economic simplicity.  A Darwinian laboratory for the survival of the fittest.

Greatest of all gems in this vast collection of jewels is Delicate Arch.  It stands alone and aloof from the rest, quite far from any other attraction.   In fact it's practically inaccessible.   Hiking uphill for two miles over slick behemoth boulders in the desert heat at high altitude seemingly conspires against anyone ever reaching this isolated landmark.

Pathway to Delicate Arch

The anticipation built while getting to the arch is like potential energy released at first sight.  A fantastic feature on one continuous rock surface stands there, impossibly, pointing skyward, and downward, marking an undisclosed passageway.  A portal to another dimension? A divine whimsy?  A giant's project?  Certainly a testament to nature's varied splendor.  A skeptic might believe, however briefly, that a cosmic Architect, or the hand of God gently carved out an arch so exquisite its only purpose could be to signify majesty; for no other purpose than to inspire, to leave you standing there, agape.

Leaving behind scientific buzz-kill words like erosion, tectonic upheavals and the like, it is so much easier to let go and wonder...

Delicate Arch

Friday, September 28, 2012

Aspen, Ice Caves, Grottoes, and Cascades - Colorado

Aspen Forest
Aspen: a tree, a city, a forest; in any case, a beauty to behold.

The city of Aspen is an alpine jewel set in nature's precious wilderness.  It is a wealthy city where billionaires push around millionaires; it's Beverly Hills on steroids; and it sits in the wild rich Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  Arriving by plane or driving, one discovers the genteel habitat of eggs benedicts, mimosas, and NorthFace-clad hikers and mountain bikers.  It's the gateway to the playground of those who've arrived; or those who simply love nature.

Whether outfitted by REI or Walmart, everyone enjoys venturing past the city and into Mount Massive Wilderness Area in the San Isabel National Forest on the way to Independence Pass.

Magnificent mountains magically morph into an amazing aspen forest on the way to the pass.  First sight of an aspen clump of trees reveals a living organism composed of interdependent living units.  Each tree bolstering the other while searching for sunlight sings a primal leave-rustling melody beckoning to an earlier, perhaps mythical age.  They are tall with greenish white skin - scarcely a bark - and graceful round leaves like swishing earrings in auburn hair.

Within the forest wonders await.  Steep terrain belies a rocky bed where granite stones form crags, caves, and caverns topped by boulder mounds.  Tectonic plates are still forcing bedrock out of the ground and rock gardens of gigantic proportions pop up the mountainside.

Cascade
Rainfall captured at the top cascades down, tumbling, and tunneling while carving hard rock into abstract sculpted stone; some looking remarkably like pock-marked faces in various stages of surprise.

Pocked Rock Face

Natural sculpture gardens filled with reflecting pools and zen reflections capture the imagination.  

Zen Reflection

Granite vessels and fountains randomly created by fickle streams surprise at every turn.

Granite Vessel

Exploring further reveals that hydrology has been busy beneath the surface.  There are rocky grottoes, cave entrances,


Cave Entrance

....and granite ravines, or gullies lead to the most unexpected surprise of all in the warm summer month of August.

Grottoes Ravine

Ice caves, not made of ice, but carved out of solid bedrock and stocked with ice deep underground.  A subterranean pool of melting ice delightfully green with thriving aquatic life greets the unsuspecting spelunker.


Ice Caves Pool


Spring water infiltrating rocky pockets as big as bedrooms freezes in Winter and tunneling endlessly year after year expands space to chamber-size proportions. 

Ice Caves

And always, there is light; playful meandering light overhead, entering deep within crevasses; illuminating, delineating, casting dark shadows over rounded boulders; a beacon, a ray to be drawn to... a hope.


Playful Highlights