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NEXT: Page 7 Salt Point State Park 5/20
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Salt Point State Park 5/10 2of2
Salt Point State Park 5/11
Road trip continued from Page 5.
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An informational subject above was worked on at 7:10pm PDT Friday, May 10, 2024 after I had set up my campsite at the Lower Forest Loop campground. Shows how, on this earlier very sunny day, the cool, heavy marine air caused by upwelling that had been sitting offshore due to a dry, slight offshore breeze had moved east to the shore. The dull landscape light also shows why working these coastal areas in late afternoon is usually not as aesthetic or productive as during mid to late mornings.
On Saturday morning, May 11, 2024, I was up early, packed up, left my campsite, and by 7am PDT was back at bluff areas I'd looked at the previous late afternoon. However, this would not be another glorious calm sunny day, as foggy low-depth marine overcast would last until afternoon.
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The state park rocky shores have an abundance of fantastic-looking sandstone features, so before wildflowers would open up, I explored those areas. This first close-up subject above shows sea lettuce, Dudleya caespitosa, and lichen-covered sandstone. The reddish-orange areas are orange rock hair algae, Trentepohlia aurea, a species of filamentous terrestrial green alga that also grows on some oaks.
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Out on this headland point, an unusual sandstone shore erosion formation of beige-hued, round tubs with central blue-gray pedestals. The geology appears similar to an area at Point Lobos on its mid-southern shore. Water has further eroded small seawater grooves with dark organic coatings since large waves crash about the area.
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At 8:09am, Salt Point State Park has the most impressive sandstone tafoni formations on our coast. The above colorful subject has some blue-gray and rusty sandstones. Notice how the rock at frame left, just slightly further from the crashing waves, has much less black organic matter coating the rock.
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At 10:46am, a mix of beige, rusty, and black organic-coated tafoni sandstone with iron-bearing minerals and sea thrift plants.
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At 11:09am, a lichen-covered sandstone outcrop rock garden with sea lettuce, checker mallow, California poppy, and pussy ears, Calochortus tolmiei, also called hairy star tulip.
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At 1:11pm in midday fog light, seascape with coastal tidytips, Layia platyglossa, California buttercup, Ranunculus californicus, California goldfields, sea thrift, sea lettuce with the foggy Pacific Ocean visible at frame mid right edge. Midday has the best diffuse light illumination from filtered sunlight during fog.
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At 12:19pm, colchita, aka foothill deervetch, Acmispon brachycarpus, formerly Lotus humistratus, up against a lichen-covered sandstone boulder, it somehow attaches to the lichen.
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At 12:58pm, California poppy, with scarlet pimpernel, yellow bush lupine.
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At 1:25pm, amid a sandstone boulder with lichen on lumpy ground: California goldfields, California poppy, creamcups, sea lettuce, sea thrift, and varicolor lupine without blooms.
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At 1:32pm, California goldfields, a yellow bush lupine plant, California poppy, rose johnny-tuck.
At 2:21pm, at page top shows a foggy seascape with the use trail with California goldfields, California poppy, and sea thrift. A couple with their dog who were fishing is at frame left. I call this sandstone formation with tafoni, The Rockfish, given its shape and gnarly surface.
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At 3:03pm seascape with gnarly tafoni sandstone outcrops.
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At 4:08pm, more gnarly tafoni sandstone outcrop of hoodoos at the north Salt Point headland.
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2024 Trip Chronicles: Contents
