Ocean Views
Usually when Andy and I hike outside San Francisco, we head north. It’s hard to beat the drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. But we’re on a mission to visit all of California’s state parks together, and we’d been neglecting the ones south of us, so a few weeks ago, we visited two.
The first was Thornton State Beach in Daly City. San Francisco’s coastline on the Pacific is miles of famous beaches — Ocean Beach, Fort Funston. Thornton is immediately south of all that, and due to the Bay’s strange micro-climates, its even foggier than the beaches to the north.
But we’d lucked out for our visit - it was a spectacular, sunny day. The geography of the park is strange - it starts high on a clifftop, dips down to a valley, and then slopes up sharply to another clifftop which plunges into a big sandy beach and the ocean.
We started walking down from the first set of cliffs on a sandy path into the valley. Giant ravens were everywhere, coasting on the air currents. The roar of the ocean was loud, but the noise dropped to a murmur once we got into the valley. It was peaceful there (minus the caws of the birds). The valley bottom was lush with flowers and trees. As we climbed out of the valley towards the ocean, the trees looked increasingly windblown. I love these hardy coastal trees; gnarled and growing at strange angles and looking like some giant hairdryer is constantly blowing back their branches. Clinging to cliffs, somehow managing to survive in these harsh conditions.
We made it to the top of the second set of cliffs, which dropped steeply to the ocean. The tide was coming in and we didn’t feel like making the arduous climb down, so we sat on a bench perched on the cliff and listened to the waves tumble against the shore.
A few days later, we headed further south to McNee Ranch State Park. The drive is beautiful - through Pacifica, past the famous Taco Bell on the beach (which is the spiritual twin of the Pizza Hut across the street from the Pyramids of Giza, which I ate in when I was in college).
The next part of the drive used to be perilous, on a stretch of Highway 1 called “Devil’s Slide..” The name was apt - it perched high on the edge of the cliffs next to the Pacific and frequent landslides led to road closures. I know from experience that it could be a terrifying drive; 13 years or so ago, I often had to take it to get to a little nursing home that was part of my work route. I’d been in California for about a year and this Midwestern kid was totally unprepared to drive twisting, narrow mountain roads through thick fog with sheer cliff drop-offs.
Luckily, after a many-decades effort, tunnels were bored through the mountain, resulting in a much safer (though less scenic/terrifying) drive down the 1. Devil’s Slide is now a park.
Shortly after the tunnel was the parking lot for McNee Ranch. We parked and started walking into the hills under a brilliant blue sky. Our walking was slowed by botany. I’ve decided recently that I don’t want to be so completely ignorant about the world around me and I should be able to identify some plants beyond oak trees and poppies. I don’t know if using an app to identify plants is what more serious botanists would do, but you’ve got to start somewhere right? And I’m glad I did.
The beautiful flowers we saw as we walked up the hills included: shortpod mustard, blueblossom, Henderson’s Angelica, Pacific False Bindweed, Checkerbloom, Wight’s Paintbrush, Coyote Mint, and my personal favorite: Seaside Woolly Sunflower. This coastal scrubland is home to unique and hardy plants that have to stand up to the often harsh and salty winds that blow off the ocean and hit the mountains behind it.
We kept climbing around and up, getting new views of the turquoise ocean at every turn. The air was tinged with the scent of the sagebrush that covered the hillsides. Sometimes, we weren’t sure if the paths we were walking were actual paths or just places where winter rains had worn channels into the hillside. The many false summits reminded me of the Camino — I was grateful to not be wearing a 20 pound pack.
Eventually, the path led to a road. We had a choice — left went up, maybe much farther up and into the mountains. Right went down. We chose right (in both senses of the word!) and started down the broad, uneven road.
The road led around the back of the hills we’d been hiking up, through a beautiful wooded valley. This land was protected from the fierce ocean winds; the tall trees were a marked contrast to the scrubby, short plants we’d been hiking through. The shade was a welcome relief from the heat. In the distance was a farm with horses. Eventually, the road turned back to the ocean. We took a side path and went back up the way we came, admiring the views of the crashing blue sea.
Lovely post and pics
Great introduction to some parks I knew nothing about. Loved your photos!