Santa Rosa Creek To San Simeon Point

Today I indulged in a "Kim Day", one of those now rare events wherein I just take off and let my hair down and my nerve endings unwind by way of a day-tripping road and foot adventure. This one was of the "F-it" variety wherein I started the day intending to be productive and along the way realized that was not going to happen and decided to bail for the day and enjoy the coast with my new friend Chelsia upon I bestowed the rare honor of tagging along for the adventure. She shows up in a few images. Anywho, for some time I had promised to show her San Simeon Point. On the way there via Highway 46 I decided to detour and take Santa Rosa Creek Road over the Santa Lucia Mountains and duck over the hill to Cambria the back way on the Number One backroad in the county (Santa Rosa Creek Road). From there we headed on to Old San Simeon and parked at William Randolph Hearst State Park and ambulated out to the point which was magical as always but with the added bonus of being unusual warm to go along with the fog-less weather. What follows are the images I shot that survived my editing process and they are shown in the order they were taken.

The summit of Santa Rosa Creek Road as it cross the spine of the Santa Lucia Mountains (the local manifestation of the Coast Ranges in this part of California) with view looking west towards the ocean.

Santa Rosa Creek Road, the best backroad in the county.

The view down the hill looking at the Three Levels of the road.

The view up the hill looking at the Three Levels of the road.

Santa Rosa Creek Road crossing the Oceanic Fault.

The Oceanic Fault is the subterranean structure responsible for the 2003 San Simeon Earthquake.

Mineral spring formed by the 2003 San Simeon Quake is still going strong in the creek bottom.

View looking downstream of Santa Rosa Creek.

View looking upstream of Santa Rosa Creek.

Santa Rosa Creek Road access for the public to Santa Rosa Creek can only be obtained at and around this curve.

It was so silent today at the cove and point that the waves such as they were seemed disquieting and at times surreal.

San Simeon Cove was unusually placid today... and it was unusually warm with no hint of fog... that's high pressure for you!

Tepee

Chelsia in the climbing tree.

Note the memorial cross.

Nesting cormorants left the ground below utterly white including plants and bark and logs, etc.

Taking a bad photograph was not possible on this day.

The lighting was perfect and there were no people.... how could a photographer go wrong?

I found this poignant memorial to "Daddy" telling him he was loved.

The old trees in rows forming paths strike me as rather Tolkien-esque.

Some of the landforms and trails upon them are rather Dr. Seus-ish.

I like this lichen.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).