Crescent City, CA - Pebble Beach - Travel Blog Photo Journal

My husband, Jon, and I recently took a day trip to Pebble Beach and the Redwood National Forest to celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. I’ve split up each of the locations we visited into its own blog post to make organizing the photographs and my notes easier. This first post features Pebble Beach in Crescent City, CA.

The moment we crossed the border into California (I’m a SoCal native), it was like something in my soul that had been dormant instantly came alive. The air smelled sweeter and the scent of the manzanita groves flowering was so thick, we rolled the car windows down so we could breathe it in as we drove.

The salt and coastal fog made me feel like I was home again, and the moment my bare feet hit sand, it was like the resurrection fern in my heart began to unfurl her fresh fronds.

Water trickled down onto the rock faces from what seemed to be hidden springs above the beach, making colors in the stone more vivid and providing sustenance for the algae living on it. In the drier areas, swallows nested in the cliffs, flying to and from the water en masse with food for their young ones.

Pelicans, gulls (including Bonaparte’s gulls, Glaucous-winged gulls, western gulls, California gulls, and perhaps other species), shearwaters, sanderlings, sandpipers, ravens, vultures, and a lone great blue heron were also enjoying a morning by the sea when we were there.

Giant green anemones and aggregating anemones were nestled into the tide pools formed in the craggy rocks along the shoreline.

In the distance, I could hear the playful barks of sea lions sunbathing on the rocks farther out to sea.

Ochre sea stars were abundant in both purple and orange hues. Seeing them always feels like coming across something magical to me.

Goose-neck barnacles, mussels, and acorn barnacles blanketed the surfaces of the rocks.

Shore birds watched with some wariness as we explored their native habitat.

The upper parts of the shore were littered with weathered driftwood and clumps of plants that were growing in straight sand. I was able to identify sand dune phacelia (Phacelia argantea) and a flowering ice plant (Carpobrutus edulis), but there were three or four other species growing in the sand that I have not yet identified, as each has several lookalikes and I do not yet know them well.

It was a lovely, soul-fueling day I shan’t soon forget and I hope to return again.