CA1 and Los Osos- its the ocean!

The weather forecast was not a good one, but it was a trafficless Sunday morning and I was in California! An early start and I saw no signs of the rainy morning that was to be.

Endless long rows of strawberries ran into the Pacific Coast Highway soon after I left the city, and didnt seem to stop. Tractors, pickups and lines of dark-haired people managed many of the fields and greenhouses that bowed to the far-off Sierra Madres and there were no clouds. Lots of Surfboards headed north; dubious straps and strings held each board to whatever car or truck could handle it.

My destination was a Santa Barbara County property, Jalama Beach; The beach is said to be a hot spot for fish and whale fossils, agate and Marcasite. I passed Santa Barbara and Goleta and there was still no sign of bad weather.

This morning was just too great a one to spend driving! I opted for a break at Gaviota State Park- another site referenced in the ROCKHOUNDING CALIFORNIA book I picked up in LA. The book tells of no metallic crystals, agate or jade like at Jalama, just a bit north of me. "Gaviota Beach Petrified Whale Bone and Fossils" was the name of this entry.

There was a bit of an entrance fee, but I needed to get onto my feet! The parking lot was full of fishermen who walked slowly onto the wood pier. I followed- to the end of the beach before I cut left and started my hunt. I collected a handful of abalone before I hit the creek. I crossed the frigid thing and continued the trek east and down the beach. The shore on this side of the creek was thin- only 30 or 40 feet of sand and loose stuff was exposed before a sharp,. leaning wall stopped it. The wall is of some pale sedimentary rock which contains the fossils that I was wanting. It was tall and steep- large portions of it were shattered and resting at the base.

I combed until I came upon such a pile; a million small, thin slabs of the rock cluttered to high side of the beach. I spent time shifting through and examining the stuff, but I found no identifiable fossils. No whale bones- I walked only a half mile or so before I turned back.

The beach smells like gasoline.

It is the tar; black goo floats up from the bottom of the ocean and washes ashore here. The sun made the lit pieces soft and flexible while the shaded ones remained hard. I struck a cold, shaded glob of tar with a rock- it shattered like glass and the pieces appeared as obsidian.

I picked one smooth black rock up to discover that it was covered in the tar- this stuff was warm and melted. I think that there may still be the black residue in the cracks of my skin!

It began to cloud up and it did so quickly; the rain started in only minutes. It was a lite, cold rain and was beautiful in the sunny clouds. I took my handful of abalone and a chunk of green-marbled agate back to the car. The wet weather disappeared just as quickly as it came and left Gaviota beach with a nasty northerly wind. The loose, dry sand whipped through the parking lot and was blasted out to sea. The blacktop was soon flooded with the fishermen and armfuls of bait and tackle.

It was a scary-gusty two hours from here- I skipped Jalama. I was off to spend some time at one of my favorite California parks. I see now where all of the surfboards were headed; Hwy One was a parking lot on both sides and wetsuits and surfboards were everywhere. The waves were big- and growing!

Montaña de Oro SP, a huge, rugged park just southwest of Los Osos, offers everything from tide pools to beaches, cliffs and hills... The wind ripped at the tropical-looking Eucalyptus grove at the entrance of the park. You can see Morro Bay and Morro Rock from here- they are several miles away.

I made a quick stop at their largest beach; I pulled in to the eroded parking lot and was instantly blasted with the powerful spray of the far waves. I faced the water and the giant waves- they were still several hundred feet from the car. The mist was as thick as rain in some gusts. The wind tore the water off of each breaking wave.

I walked only for a few minutes- the wind was exhausting! A few flowers still bloom- some cool things were washing ashore!

At the visitor center, a woman at the desk apologized for the "Gail-force winds" we were having... Eighty MPH she told me! I bought a postcard and a campground for the night and set up ,y tent under some giant Juniper. The campgrounds here are nice; They are away from all of the business of the park and are small. In addition to the spikes that anchored my sail-like tent to the ground, I through the cooler in, and a large rock. The winds were not nearly as bad back here !

I walked to the furthest accessible point on the beach where a group of cormorant-looking birds hunkered down in the sharp rocks. The seagulls were still out, thought they seemed to take little enjoyment out of the hurricane we were having.

I found a piece of jade- about the size of a quarter. The small "nugget" is a lighter green than what I expected to fine, but allows only small amounts of light to come through it. I found some colorful anemones in the tide pools. A short walk from this beach- along some bluffs and through several acres of dry, scrubby growth- leads one to several others. These beaches are smaller than the other- the ground is of a much coarser mix of crushed shells and polished rocks. The tide pools are plentiful here- hermit crabs and little fish thrive. They look like little little darters- they move like them. The water is extraordinarily clear when it is still- the creatures are as sharp as if I were underwater with them.

A pair of the armored crustaceans were engaged in a fierce battle. The heavy wrestlers climbed and crawled in an awkward slow-motion; One scurried away with a small dead Limpet and the other chased after the feast with waving white pincers. My shadow got too close and the hermit crabs retreated into their shells... the limpet slipped down the rock that they stood on and hit the bottom of the puddle. I backed up and the crabs went at it again.

Large, rubbery flaps of whatever sea-plant this is littered the shore- seemed as though someone had just smeared sherbet all over the beach. Some rancid sea-cucumbers were of the same colors and a large purple crab lay under a mess of kelp. A large group of Snorkel-guys braved the strong waves and the cold water- wetsuits, flippers and all.. They spent only an hour or so in the water. Gustiest winds began to recede just as the sun hit the clouds on the horizon.

I tried taking some photos of the waves, the rocks, but the mist that was blown ashore made it difficult to keep the lens clean for more than a few seconds.