Picture of the Day - Fire & Water

Today I had a modified Kim Day in which I took the day off but in this case I did not go solo but joined the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on a business roadtrip to Santa Barbara with lunch at Harry's, book browsing at Chaucer's, and then a visit to the Gaviota Coast on the way home to hunt petrified whale bone. We took Highway 154 down in order to get to our destination quicker as well as to see the aftermath of last summer's Whittier Fire (which was not fully controlled until earlier this winter), an aftermath I had not heretofore seen with mine own eyes and it was eye-opening. Dangerous weather with the potential for flashflooding and mudslides is predicted for the overnight period into tomorrow. We were chased off of Gaviota Beach at Gaviota State Park late this afternoon by the first major rain bands of this strong Pacific Storm whose circulation will pass over the Central Coast overnight into tomorrow. Above is the view along Highway 154 looking eastward across the burn scar with ominous skies clabbering up and lowering. The long story of modern California history is that of wildfire followed by flashfloods and mudslides. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Picture of the Day - Louise Judd

This evening early, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reinstalled the headstone of the late Louise Judd at the residence of her son, our Dennis, in his backyard given the stone is no longer useful at the locality of her interment. We gathered around our friend and moved the surprisingly heavy stone into its new resting place. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My Toro-Villa-San Simeon Creeks Kim Day

Today I needed a Kim Day and so I took one with some special friends and their family, fellow members of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and some of their family. An awesome day was had by all and I got out of my cage and finally got to rockhound, and at the beach after phenomenal recent storms, no less! We started at Toro Creek Inlet at what I have always called Hole-in-the-Wall Beach which is owned by a petroleum company and not state parks so it is a popular dog beach. Our middle adventure was at Toro Creek Inlet and adjacent beaches. Our last stop was my beloved San Simeon Creek Inlet which adjacent beach I consider to be "my beach." Cool stones were found by everybody and we topped the day off with some grub from Main Street Grill in Cambria. I even got to have my Natter-Nutty Smoothie from Sandy's Deli across the street, a concoction I have chistened "sex in a cup." My buddy Ron disagrees and likens it to "foreplay in a cup." Apparently, he has experienced better sex than I have. Whatever.

Beach at Toro Creek Inlet with Morro Rock in the background.

Exploring Toro Creek may reveal fresh agates and biconoid material or even the occasional Chumash arrowhead.

Villa Creek Inlet with abalone farm on the coastal hill in the distance.

Ron and his son find a small gravel bar formed in front of a seaweed plant that washed up in the recent storm.

This is mid-January on the Central Coast. Guess why I live here? That is Point Buchon in the distance.

This is very similar to another image I posted a few images up but I can't resist including it as it is so idyllic a scene.

San Simeon Creek recently blew out the summertime sandbar as a result of the recent Pacific storms. It was pushing directly out into the ocean sans any major right turns up the beach as it will do later as the creek seasonally reduces flow amount and the ocean starts pushing back at the creek and damming it up with sand and gravel during the dry season.

This is the best kind of gravel in which to rockhound and beachcomb at this beach: right after major rains and storm waves have moved substantial volumes of material about the beach and down the creek from the Santa Lucia Mountains from whence the material originates.

This was one of the prettier stones (brecciated jasper with quartz fill) I saw all day and it was fairlyi large (6"x5"x4") this is as I found it having not yet picked it up when I shot this image. The stone was donated to the driver of our expedition.

To our amazement, five C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets of the United States Air Force ambled by way too close to the beach to be legal. We didn't mind as it was exciting to see them as they headed down to Vandenberg AFB en route from probably Travis AFB.

A wave surge enters the lagoon created at San Simeon Creek inlet by the ocean trying to wall off the creek with sand and gravel as it will eventually succeed in doing this spring as with every year.

This view is up the beach looking towards the bird rookery (sea stack in the distance).
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Visiting a Rockhounding Legend

En route back home from Jalama Beach last weekend, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen visited the private museum of the arguably most legendary rockhound in California. I withhold his name for the sake and safety and sanctity of the man and his collection. Needless to say this infamously peripatetic rockhound and raconteur regaled us with many a tale of adventure and graciously showed us his fine collection of the fruits of his lifelong labor of love. To view the Jalama Beach part of this adventure go HERE.

The largest shark teeth are megalodon teeth.

Lots of Desmostylus teeth here as well as a tusk at right.

This is essentially a petrified shark skull sans the skull which is made of cartilage but the teeth are in their original configuration.

The collection of local petrified wood was the most interesting thing to me aside from the shark-related items.

Petrified burl or root.

This petrified limb was found encased in a concretion.

This is another concretion-encased petrified wood limb.

Since being a child I have been intrigued with Nipomo agate. Nipomo beanfield agate is at center in the geode.

Nipomo sagenitic agate.

Nipomo sagenitic (at left) and marcasitic (at right) agate.

Nipomo marcasitic agate.

A bit of everything Nipomo agate here: beanfield at bottom, marcasitic at left and top, sagenitic at right.

He told me he got this petrified whale skull for me but I did not follow up on it and now I fear he does not want to give this up having grown fond of it being in his yard. Let the game commence!
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all right reserved)

Revisiting Jalama Beach

This past weekend the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen embarked on their second expedition, this time to Jalama Beach in southwestern Santa Barbara County at the western end of the Gaviota Coast, one of the most magical stretches of California Coast on par with Malibu and Big Sur. Today it was three of us, Dennis, Ron, and myself. We turned left and headed eastward towards the better petrified whale bone prospects. Each of us found a piece, each one different: Dennis's piece was a naturally tumbled pebble featuring great bone cell structure, Ron's was palm-sized and naturally tumbled and polished, and mine was palm-sized and very rough with the bone mostly in its original configuration not long out of the matrix in which it was preserved and petrified. We each also had a good day finding beach agates which we knew were there but did not expect to find as much of as we did. We did get to the concretions and checked a few of them before heading back due to time constraints. Next time we visit we will get an earlier start and stay later and longer. Our time constraint was an appointment with the most legendary rockhound I know of the fruit of which encounter can be seen HERE.

View back towards the campground with Dennis and Ron at left and right, respectively.

These pebbles are predominately radiolarian chert pebbles.

My petrified whale bone find.

Jalama Beach sedimentary cliffs.

Natural tar snake

Natural tar shark. The natural tar detritus was quite prominent and the most I have ever observed here.

Tar shark head detail.

Note the stretch marks as this tar shark oozed out of a natural tar seep along a submarine fault-line nearby.

More mostly radiolarian chert and sandstone pebbles amidst stone outcroppings covered in weathered tar.

Note the concretions in the cliff face. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Of Tsunamis, Whales, Coral, and Sand Dollars

Today the newly-formed, real-life League of Extraordinary Gentlemen conducted a field trip to Santa Barbara County hunting for Miocene Epoch petrified whale bone along the Gaviota Coast as well as anything else of interest that might present itself. After stops at Gaviota and El Capitan State Beaches and a intermediate beach accessed directly from Highway 101 frequented by surfers and nudists, the group headed into Santa Barbara for lunch-dinner at Harry's and a short visit to Chaucer's Bookstore before one more stop at a fossil-bearing site in the San Antonio Valley of northern Santa Barbara County en route home. A wonderful day was had by all. Below are some of the highlights.

This one-foot-thick iron oxide-stained layer at Gaviota S.B. strikes me as being a prehistoric tsunami deposit (or it could be a turbidite deposit).

This verticality of bedding at Gaviota S.B. indicates a fault trace runs through this location.

This is a largish boulder of Miocene fossilized coral at El Capitan S.B. I wish I had placed my geologist's hammer on it for scale.

Note the presence of calcium carbonate stalactitic formations within the cavity at center of this image of the coral boulder.

Large fossilized sand dollar-infused stratified boulder from San Antonio Valley.

Fossilized sand dollar in San Antonia Valley excavated and discarded by a gopher.

Sand dollar-infused boulder at San Antonio Valley locality we visited today.

Close-up of aforementioned sand dollar-infused boulder.

Today's fossilized sand dollar finds.

My petrified whale bone finds from today. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).