San Diego Coast Walk: Week 6: Penasquitos Creek to Scripps Pier

So today we got to do Black's Beach and Torrey Pines. This is one of the more popular stretches of coast and attracts tourists from all over the world, for both the rock formations and the rare trees and the golf course just a little to the south. This trip ended at my office. Our biggest obstacle was getting around the rocks from South Blacks to Scripps, a stretch impassable at high tide, so we parked near my office ~ 1030ish and caugh the 101.

Here come the bus!

They dropped us off exactly where we got picked up last time: The Peansquitos Creek bridge along the Old 101, This is the old coastal highway. The Torrey pines coast is rugged enough, however that even the coast road had to go a bit inland and we did not see any road for much of our walk.

Some piece of the foundation from the old bridge

Penasquitos creek bridge, where we left off last time.

Walking across the creek.

She walks on water

The shore ahead: La Jolla now looming huge on the horizon.

Tower 4

A lot of rocks and Kelp washed ashore here after a recent storm.

Earlier in the week a winter storm had washed a lot debris onto the shore. It was surprisingly rocky and debris covered as we made our way along the sand. The birds were having a field day. We also found a set of car keys. When we too them to the ranger, she happily explained that it happens all the time.

Tower 3

Tower 2

Ranger station

Tower 1 end of towers

As we made our way onto the wild beach, I found myself most impressed with the rock formation, the elements have sculpted this stretch of shore most dramatically. Uplift continues here at a relatively brisk pace due to action on an offshore fault. I'll let the next few pictures speak for themselves. As I mentioned earlier this beach is famous the world over and as a consequence attracts more than its hsare of crowds with at least a dozen fitness clubs passing us as we made our way to flat rock and point south. In part this is because it's pretty, but also there is a nice loop can do with the trails roads and shoreline that encompasses all the elements of a good walk. It is most certainly lovely, but for what I know now of the crowds I could pick any number of beach locales with almost as nice scenery and way less crowd factor.

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Last chance to leave the beach for awhile!

I think the nicest stretch of Torrey pines is south of Flat rock, but north of true Blacks. Here the crowds thin out the wild character returns. Surprisingly I didn't get much in the way of photos from here, perhaps on account of hunger I was feeling. Also some of these pictures may a bit out of order, Blogger is giving me a hard time with rearranging everything.

Anita and I at the rocks marking the North end of Blacks. If you understand anything about Black's, you'll understand why we may not have so many pictures from the next few miles of our trip.

Stingray!

Paraglider!

Unspoiled shoreline.

Now south of Black's onto the city beach

I long to describe to explain Black's beach and its magic, and our time there and yet a precise description is not coming. It is no utopia, but it is a place where the rules a little different affording a freedom not found elsewhere in this society. It's also got some nice waves and cliffs. Uh yeah.

Another access point, Still a long walk up the road here.

This seems like the perfect hideout for a Bond Villain.

One of the more curious features of "South Black's" or "Torrey Pines CITY beach" is this futuristic cottage attached to one of the mansions at the top of the bluff by a funicular. It looks like the ideal location to house a Bond Villain. I keep expecting a private army of gun wielding henchmen to jup out from behind these walls as I approach and fire as I approach.

This next stretch foreshadows a bit of what we have ahead of us the next few legs of our journey: lots of scrambling. It's not too bad and the tide is still low enough and the sand wide enough, but even here the scramble is slow going. As we near the end of the first real scramble Anita gets her foot caught between some moving rocks.

Beyond here the view feels familiar as we are at my office and passing the outflow from the Hubbs experimental Aquarium. This water is actually cleaner than most of what flows into the ocean as they required to filter the heck out of it. It's here that we first begin to feel a sense of accomplishment as we have now covered a good chunk of the county and have finally gotten somewhere that we both know really well.