San Diego Coast Walk: Week 9: Dog Beach to Sunset Cliffs

From the Desk of the National Weather Service:
Beach Hazard Statement
Statement as of 4:32 AM PST on November 03, 2013
... Beach hazards statement remains in effect from 8 am PST this morning through Tuesday morning...

* locations... west facing beaches in Orange and San Diego County.

* Surf... isolated sets to 6 feet on west facing beaches.

* Timing... 8 am PST this morning through noon PST Tuesday.

* Impacts... minor flooding of low-lying areas along the beach... including beach parking lots. Strong rip currents and elevated surf will create dangerous swimming conditions.

Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs, along which, most of today's walk takes place are west facing beaches.

We started out a bit tired following dia de los Muertos festival the previous night. Time was not flowing particularly linearly for either of us as we waited at Old town for the 35 bus to Ocean Beach. Ocean Beach reminds me a bit of Venice or Santa Cruz, with crunchy hippiedom, urban campers, and the physical and chemical modification of the body and mind all popular in this seaside neighborhood.

An Alphonse Mucha image on this restaraunt!

The San Diego River Estruary

I wanted to start off as close to where we left off last week as made sense. So while we weren't at the Sunset Cliffs Bridge, we weren't far downstream of it when we came to the water. Tide was going out as we made our way down the bike trail and the mud flats were emerging. I was surprised how clear and calm it was given reports of an approaching storm from the weather service. Along this part of the river you get a sense here like nowhere else of heading rapidly to the edge of the continent.

Almost there!

A great Blue Heron in the salt marsh

Dog Beach is part of what makes San Diego such a great place to own a pet, and also home to a neat little stretch of sand which I imagine was once much more extensive before develoment and shoring up of the land eliminated all the dunes and marshes. We wandered through this miniature wild land full of now rare plants and abundant bird life, finally spotting the last stretch of "the Coast" we had walked the previous week.

Making our way down to the sand.

Hospitality point: last week's "The Coast"

I think the reason this beach is chosen as the spot to allow unleashed dogs is that it's position at the mouth of the San Diego River means that the occasional storm event guarantees that all the dogshit will eventually get washed away and feed the great food chain that is our urban ocean. I always enjoy the ephemeral landforms that the currents and waves sculpt as they emerge at low tide.

Anita on Dog beach

Pretty quiet today

There's the Ocean beach Pier!

The river makes it to the Sea today, Barely.

I think to a Simple minds song that begins "Summer's gone and Winter's in your eyes." It is joked that we do not actually have seasons here in San Diego, but today it feels like we do. Daylight savings time has ended. We have had at least two "winter" storms and on the horizon a third is approaching. The crowds have dwindled and locals complain that is is now cold at night. Often the approach of a storm is accompanied by a south wind (due to the nature of low pressure systems in these parts, Coriolis forces etc . . .). The air tastes sweet and unstable. The delightful quality the air takes on is enhanced by a sense that it won't last.

Sculpted shimmering mud flats at low tide.

And of course lots of dogs

I like how this one captures the salt spray of OB.

Once more looking back at Dog Beach.

Surf Contest today.

And behind the volleyballers are Towers 1-9 Sorry we missed them.

As we make our way around the Jetty separating Dog beach from Ocean Beach we spot more signs of the changing seasons. Although a surf contest is full swing here, they have bulldozed the beach sand into giant berms. There's not really much a seawall (it starts up a little further south) and so these mounds are all that protect the neighborhood from a storm surge. While we don't have hurricanes much here, the winter storms can certainly deliver a pounding.
I had hoped to get all the lifeguard towers. Apparently they get put away for the winter.

Sand Berm to protect the neighborhood during a storm. Anita for scale.

Another little Jetty.

Looking back from the berm top.

last lifeguard Superstation for awhile.

OB pier from below

The sandy beach ends just south of OB pier. Wanting to walk on the sand as long as possible we dodge the walkway and try our luck with the rocks.

End of Sandy beach

Egret on the rocks

Water going out

Coming in

The rocks south of OB Pier are mezmerizing at low tide, the way the waves enter the little channels and the way they empty is hypnotic. We stop for a snack and plan our crossing. This marks the beginning of a more rugged stretch of coastline, much like that we traveled during our three days through La Jolla, though I'd argue that the feel here is quite different. Whereas La Jolla is guarded by the obvious wealth willing to pay top dollar to reinforce, patrol, and clean up the coast, Ocean Beach has a bit more embrace of the "riff raff." We see all sorts of scruffy characters drinking (illegal on San diego Beaches, but remarkably pleasant otherwise), lots of names carved into the rock, and a lot of people who don't appear to be going anywhere fancy after their hangout on the beach session is over. It's a nice mix and it's nice to see a place where you don't have to be a millionaire to enjoy your own slice of paradise.

Waves splashing the rocks

A lot of names carved into the rock

Some psychedelic themed art

A little chasm

There are actually a number of beaches here, but none particularly large ones. We decided to scramble as much as possible, slowing our journey considerably (but making it a lot more fun, too). The storm seemed to be holding of and were graced with quite a bit of light. It kind of reminded me of the golden hour, except sunset was still over 2 hours away. Must have been all the moisture in the air.

Anita negotiates a tricky bit of rocks.

Repetition of patterns seen elsewhere on a much smaller scale.

One of my favorite aspects of the beach is how evident the self similarity of landforms on multiple scales is so well exhibited here. You can see entire mountain ranges, beautiful alluvial fans, giant chasms, thick forests, drainage networks for large river systems . . . but they're all on the scale of inches to 10's of feet. You can cover a world in an hour lingering at various exotic locales getting lost in the intricacies until half your day has passed.

Looking down the rift.

One feels small in such grandeur.

Lots of little creepy crawly things.

Ocean beach is like flip side of La Jolla, identical and yet opposite. Lots of beautiful seacliffs, lovely walkable neighborhoods, great food, but such different cultures, such different ongoing evolution. I can't tell whether its the offshore bathymetry, the competency of the bedrock or just how much effort was put into attempting to stop the ocean decades ago, but in OB it feels like the ocean is taking over just a bit more. We reached an area where it seemed like every defense against the sea was failing. All around us pathways, staircases and retaining walls were crumbling or had crumbled, and the cliffs behind them rapidly sliding away. I can only imagine how it looked when these structures were first built, versus the city of rusted ruins we found before us. Between this and the graffiti everywhere it felt a little closer to a post apocalyptic setting or at least drifting that way.

After all the Scrambling the ease of this short pathway was welcome.

But like everything around it the pathway is also washing into the sea.

Graffiti on the Stairs

Sky reflected in the tide pools

Sculpted rocks

A foreboding look out to sea

The sky reflected

Wide angle view. The curvature of the earth apparent.

Where the seawall ends, the erosion begins. This was tricky to negotiate.

At times we'd just stop in our tracks, hungry, thirsty, watching our step, but mesmerized by the scenery and the light. I did a few panoramics hoping to capture the vastness and brilliance, but to really appreciate it one would need a 30- inch screen or something.

A pillar from some long destroyed stairway.

We don't need no stinkin' handrail.

The cove of ruins. once the seawall fails, erosion proceeds quickly.

The walls continue to crumble

Looking back on a challenging bit of coast.

Waves intensifying.

Watch that last step. It's a doozy.

oh yeah!

We managed to say along the beach and cliffs for all but about 1 city block of coastline. From the top of Sunset Cliffs natural park, the street is right atop the cliff and we could just take the sidewalk. We were at the time beginning to get tired and the nearest bus stop was still behind us meaning we'd be retracing at least some of our journey before we could rest. I wasn't quite ready to turn back, but we couldn't realistically go on much longer as the day would end all too soon. We had originally hoped to get to the south end of Sunset cliffs Beach where the military reservation begins and then walk over the hill to catch the bus at Shelter Island, but that was not going to be. So we went just a little bit farther while the air, and the light were still agreeable to find a place to enjoy some chips and soda we had picked up at a convenience store.

A new phase of our journey begins.

Looking back on the cost we've covered.

Sunset cliffs used to boast better accessibility.

A natural bridge

A crack

With our energies fading this was a difficult stretch, but also rewarding. in many places the sidewalk was as close as we could get, but in others we went far out along the bluffs, Spotting natural bridges, massive cracked rocks. We found a secluded spot to enjoy our food with a view through a natural bridge. The waves splashing high only a few feet away, yet somehow protected.

The farthest place we reached.

Pounded by relentless seas.

I have not been in many photos. It's nice to be in this one.

Through the arch to the seascape beyond.

A little natural bridge

Anita on her perch

Looking back at brilliant skies.

We wandered back along the streets, it taking only 1/2 hour to get back to the pier where we had been 2 hours earlier. Figuring we had some time before dark and the next bus we went out and were richly rewarded with the last bit of sunlight sparkling on all the lands around us.