4/28/11 - Day 5
17 Mile drive from Monterey down, including Pebble Beach, Spanish Bay, Lone Cypress, etc. Then from Monterey a coastal drive including Big Basin and back to San Francisco.
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El Camino Real (King's Highway) Mission Bells. Monterey (see description)
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Huckleberry Hill Nature Preserve. Wide trails and steep terrain.
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Bearberry - grows at high altitudes
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Pine cone growing on trunk (Monterey Pine)
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Shepherds Knoll with Monterey Bay in the background
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More Monterey Pines on Huckleberry Hill - the high point of the trail
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Back to sea level
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From Monterey south on the 17-mile scenic Pebble Beach run.
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Spanish Bay - Don Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish explorer, made camp here in 1769 while searching for Monterey Bay.
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To the left in the distance is China Rock. Here and at Point Joe, Chinese fishermen built their homes (just lean-to's against the rocks) in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
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To the right in the distance is Point Joe. The turbulence is caused by rocks hidden under the water. Early mariners often crashed here believing they had found the entrance to Monterey Bay.
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A Western Gull, Whimbrel, a slightly tipsy American Crow, and Sanderlings.
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. . . how Zzzzzzen . . .
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Why it's called Pebble Beach
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Top row: Purple Sand Verbena, Monterey Coast Paintbrush, Beach Primrose - Bottom row: Coastal California Poppy, Ice Plant, Fleabane also called Beach Aster or Seaside Daisy.
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Black Turnstone - A pair of them with field marks! Yes!
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Brown Pelican
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The rooftops of The Inn at Spanish Bay
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Not always so pacific
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Seal Rock
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Seal Rock
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California Ground Squirrel
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Lone Cypress - over 250 years old - not quite a Redwood, but remarkable for its location.
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Lone Cypress shows retaining wall and cables to help keep it upright. For over a 100 years, the preferred stop for folks wishing to see a dramatic coastline.
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Finished with the 17-mile Pebble Beach scenic run below Monterey, we head back up to the Santa Cruz area to check out the Big Basin, and then we head back to San Francisco.
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A quick stop at El Estero Park (The Estuary Park) - American Coot showing us his red eyes
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Hybrid Mallard on left. Interesting bird. Curly tail says "male". There are other examples of this bird on the web, but few and far between. My money's on x Redhead or x Pintail.
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Double-crested Cormorant. Look at the position of their feet. :D
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Top: Brewer's Blackbirds; Bottom: unknown Gulls; Right: Tree Swallows
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In the direction of Santa Cruz and the Big Basin. You may not have given it much thought, but do you know that when you're eating an artichoke you're eating a flower bud?
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Big Basin - Yellow Mustard, no doubt descended from plants that Spanish missionaries brought, lines the roads.
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Black-backed Gulls
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Big Basin, Waddell Beach - Pale dry sand blowing over the darker wet sand.
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Common Raven, Tansy (Tanacetum) Button Flower, the endangered Burrowing Goose
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Big Basin
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Big Basin wind surfing.
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Sail surfing
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...toe surfing? Was it worth getting frostbite to get wet in the Pacific? You betcha!
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Leaving Big Basin towards San Francisco. Tree Lupine along the side of the road. Tomorrow, San Francisco!
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