Hikers Guide
How Big Sur Almost Became a National Park and Why It Didn’t
In autumn 1977 Gary Koeppel, a Big Sur gallery owner, learned that some affluent Monterey Peninsula residents led by Ansel Adams wanted to make Big Sur a national park. What irked Koeppel and the Big Sur residents he told was that the park advocates had held secret meetings with county, state and federal officials. An…
Read MoreSea Otters
While sea otters fascinate, even enchant people with their cute faces and amusing antics, they are a remarkable and extremely specialized aquatic animal. Southern sea otters inhabit the giant kelp forests growing just offshore along the California coast, while two other sea otter subspecies live in the kelp beds of southern Alaska and northeastern Asia.…
Read MoreCalifornia Lighthouses
California’s rugged 1200-mile coastline has long been renowned for the fury of its hazardous waters and the deception of its offshore reefs and rocks. Only after California entered the United States in 1850 Was any effort made to provide navigational aids. In 1854 Alcatraz Island Lighthouse in San Francisco Bay became the Golden State’s first,…
Read MoreWatch for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises
The California Coastal Trail provides some of the best whale watching in the state. If you hike the coast between November and May, you’ll have excellent chances to see some of the 24,000 California gray whales that swim the west coast each year. If you hike CCT in summer or autumn, you might spot humpback…
Read MoreThe Fence and the Mexico-U.S. Border
The last three miles of the California Coastal Trail south from the town of Imperial Beach follow the beach adjacent to the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR). You can’t miss the end of the journey at Border Field State Park. A huge fence made out of foot-thick pipes descends from the bluff into…
Read MoreMonterey: Center of Mexican California
Juan Cabrillo, a Portuguese captain sailing for Spain, entered Monterey Bay and claimed the area for Spain in 1542, just 50 years after Columbus’ maiden voyage to America. In 1602 Sebastian Vizcaino landed at Monterey, naming it for his patron, the count of Monterey. Vizcaino described a fertile land of mild climate with a “noble…
Read MoreUnique Torrey Pines State Reserve
The Torrey pine reigns among the rarest of the rare plants on the California shore. Before the last ice age over 11,000 years ago, Torrey pine forests covered large areas of southern California. Then changing climatic conditions reduced the stands to one of the world’s smallest native distributions of any tree. A few thousand Torrey…
Read MoreSan Diego’s Coastal Rail Trail and Coastal Rail Service
A San Diego population dead set on outdoor recreation in the fine desert weather of southern California generates a high level of support for developing new recreational opportunities. The large numbers of bicyclists riding along congested Pacific Coast Highway and other roadways and in parks indicated the need for a bike trail system. A coalition…
Read MoreCan the Last Wild Places Be Saved?
No one doubts that the car is king in America, and nowhere is it more greatly glorified than in southern California. There the ugly sibling of the car, unfettered urban and suburban sprawl-also held in high regard-grows cancerously into the fragile open spaces of valley and hill throughout the region. The octopus offspring of this…
Read MoreDana Point, Then and Now
In 1835 the trading brig Pilgrim sailed around Cape Horn in search of Spanish cowhides for the Boston shoe industry. The Pilgrim put in at what was then known as San Juan to trade with the Spanish mission, San Juan Capistrano. During the 1830s and 1840s, cowhide trading became such big business that the hides…
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