Shelter Cove can only be reached by that winding road that cuts west through the mountains. That's because this area is too rugged even for the ruggedly famous Highway 1. The construction engineers decided a road couldn't be made on this leg of the coast, so Highway 1 dips east and inland for about 50 miles. So this area of the Pacific is known as the "Lost Coast" because so few people will take the time and trouble to get here. It didn't take us long to get down that hill and onto the black sand beach of Shelter Cove. What a view!
The note at the bottom of the posted sign is "a warning from locals" that describes the dangers of this beautiful beach. Lives have been lost here when people didn't respect the rip currents and sneaker waves that are prevalent at Shelter Cove.
We planned to head down the beach, but we found there are several creeks that empty into the ocean along the way. While some of them were jumpable, this one was substantial enough to have to wade across.
We made a few flying leaps over the water to cross, but our shoes were still soaked for the rest of the walk today.
The waves are crashing and it's a beautiful place to be on the black sand beach this morning.
The sand is definitely black when it is wet, and dries to a dark gray color at low tide.
Other parts of the beach are made up of a solid covering of stones, rather than sand.
We grabbed a few stones to show the curious white markings that decorate most of them.
Along with all those little gray rocks, there were a few more sizable boulders on this beach. Mark is a rock climber, so there had to be a picture of him on one of the rocks.
Surprisingly, this boulder was even easy enough for Denisa to climb. It is interesting to see that this beach has a tree-lined green mountain right behind it.
Where there are green hills, you will probably see spring wildflowers this time of year. We haven't seen California poppies for awhile, so it was a pleasant surprise to find them on the beach.
We were probably a mile into our stroll along the beach, when suddenly we began to see evidence that there is sea life in the Pacific Ocean. We haven't seen many sea shells on the west coast beaches. But in this small section of the Shelter Cove, we suddenly found lots of neat things on the beach.
Before our walk was over, we found several different starfish, each with their own shape and personality. There was this starfish, with a different texture and shape. He was definitely dried out, and the black rocks were adhered to him.
This starfish was still moist, and we think he is a leather star.
Our last star was this guy, with turned up tips. So we know that there are an interesting array of starfish in the Pacific.
We also started finding a good number of these purple sea urchins on the beach. The first is upside down showing its central mouth, while the second is oriented the way they're usually found in the ocean.
As they dry out, their purple spines will fall off. The dried shell shows the pattern where the large and smaller spines were attached. It's a wonder to us that God planned the details to give even this sea urchin a beautifully intricate design.
We had never seen this sea creature before. They look like a lovely golden loaf of bread on the beach. But that "loaf" has a crusty shell.
Flipping them over didn't give us any more clues on this new-to-us creature. We later found that this is a gumboot chiton. We hadn't seen them before because they are only found in the north Pacific on rocky shorelines. We first described it as a bread item, but wikipedia's nickname for it was a "wandering meatloaf."
We have been disappointed with the shelling on the west coast. But today Mark found a pair of shells that were still attached. Their interiors where a beautiful blue, and together they formed a butterfly shape.
Denisa likes to take pictures of the best beach finds of the day. She threw in a crab, and one of the many pieces of driftwood we saw today. In the upper left, Mark found something that looks like a large fish vertebrae. The ocean has such fascinating creatures, and wanderers from a land-locked state really enjoy these opportunities to see more of them.
Denisa found some tiny sea shells that seemed to get lost in the rocks when she tried to take a picture on the beach. So here is her favorite handful of tiny shells for the day. We had never seen such a tiny sea star before.
Then we noticed these odd blue shapes attached to a piece of redwood on the beach. It made a beautiful color combination, but we have no idea what it is.
There were sizable clumps of this mystery-marine-life washed up on the shore, tangled together. This will give Mark a good googling challenge to try to figure out what we have found this time.
All these sea creatures have really slowed down the pace on our walk down the beach. We are getting closer to that rocky point in the background, but we know we aren't going to make it that far today.
We came to another creek crossing, and Mark found a sizable piece of driftwood to make a bridge to keep our feet from getting wet again.
That's when Denisa figured out her hiking boots had taken their last hike. They've hiked many miles since Mark glued the soles back on. But now the stitching has deteriorated so that they are rubbing on her feet. She decided to try the walk back to the car in bare feet. That didn't last long when she found out that black sand gets really hot on a sunny day.
The tide was coming in and the wind had increased as we got closer to our starting point. We love sitting and watching the big waves that can be generated from those conditions.
We also love to try to capture them in pictures--timing it so there is a wall of water rolling across that long beach.
Mark tried to convince Denisa to be in the picture when a big wall wave was heading to the shore. "Walk closer to the water" he instructed while Denisa was looking at him.
Then she has to run for high ground when that big wave sneaks up on her. Denisa thinks that this is Mark's favorite picture of the day.
Another favorite part of our day was talking with the hikers that have made the 25-mile trip on the Lost Coast Trail. They usually start on the north end of the trail, and then end their journey in the south at Shelter Cove. They spend from 2 to 4 nights camping on the lost coast, and they walk those miles carrying large packs with their food and bedding. Those that spent four nights on the trail reported that the first two nights were very wet and difficult with pouring rain.
We were near the end of the beach when we met Luke and Drea, who had just conquered the 25-mile Lost Coast Trail. They were headed to the campground in Shelter Cove, which was another couple miles away. They were more than happy to accept our offer of a ride in our car to get there.
After some fish and chips for lunch at the only cafe in town, we checked out the lighthouse on the beach.
A stroll along the rocky shore near the campground introduced us to more marine life.
We found things like this group of sea anemones waving in the water in the tide pools.
We sat and watched the group of seals that make their home on the rocks in front of us.
It didn't look like a very restful place to lounge with the tide coming in. This seal lifted his tail and his head every time another wave came crashing into the rocks.
Many more seals were playing in the water, while others lounged on the rocks.
Since we love watching the crashing waves and the playful seals, this was a great place for us to lounge as well.
This is the beach that the locals seem to prefer, so we got to talk to someone that lives in this tiny village. She was looking for abalone. This delicacy with the shiny shell interior is now hard to find. Even though a real treasure would be a hub-cap size abalone, we enjoyed these two tiny abalone on our little beach, along with some lacy sea coral.
We had a lovely day at Shelter Cove, and were blessed with beautiful weather. We feel like we have once again wandered into another of God's many wonders! Our campground host was the first person that suggested this trip to Shelter Cove. She also mentioned that she collected heart-shaped rocks, and asked us to bring any home that we found. Mark spotted this heart on the beach, so it has now been added to her collection.
We love wandering His wonders!
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