Friday, April 27, 2012

One Day Road Trip: Coastal Highway

After leaving Baker Beach, I continued south. I could cut over to to the freeway and drive directly home or stay on Lincoln, which would eventually lead me to Highway 1.   Since I had never traveled this road before and I didn't know exactly what I'd see along the way, I stayed on Lincoln.  I  wanted to be near the ocean and I had a vague idea that I might stop in Davenport to photograph the sunset.  I knew what towns were along this highway, but I didn't know the mileage.  I could have looked on a map, but I decided to just wing it.  The biggest town along the way was Half Moon Bay.  I drove right through.  Then I saw the lighthouse.  I had totally forgotten about Pigeon Point Lighthouse.   If sunset hadn't still been hours away, I would have stopped here to shoot it.  I'll come back another time.
 
The lighthouse was surrounded by an unsightly, wire fence, so I walked around the grounds looking for better views, but I didn't stay long.  I still had quite a stretch of highway between me and the sunset.   I got all of a quarter mile down the highway when I spotted a turnout with a rutted road that passed right through the wildflowers.  No sign told me I should stay off it, so I slowly ventured  forth toward water's edge. This was perfect, exactly what I had been hoping to see, and no hiking involved.  I had to switch into 4-wheel drive to get back on the highway.  Fun stuff.                   
 
I took this with my iPhone (propped on top of my Nikon), processed it in Snapseed, and immediately posted it on Facebook.  (I always add a frame to my iPhone photos.)  Here's an interesting side story.  One of my Facebook friends tagged the photo.  Her Facebook friends saw it, one of whom is a life long friend of my sister.  Kinda makes you want to break out in song: "It's a small world after all."   
I arrived in Davenport around 6pm.  Sunset was still over an hour and a half away, but the clouds held the possibility of a colorful display, so I decided to wait it out.  The town is very small (pop. 475) and I had no idea where to set up my tripod.  I wanted a view of the cliffs, but a large field loomed between the highway and the ocean.  I pulled into a dirt turn-out and saw a road that led across the railroad tracks toward the ocean, but this time an "Authorized Vehicles Only" sign stopped me.   I walked down the road, crossed the tracks, and saw a path that skirted around what turned out to be a field of artichokes.  I hesitated because this would put me on an isolated path, by myself after dark.  The safe thing to do would be to walk back to my car and go home.  I didn't. 
The sunset was not the spectacular show I was hoping for, but still, the water and the cliffs were beautiful. 

I took this last picture 30 minutes after sunset.

No comments:

Post a Comment