San Gregorio State Beach, San Gregorio, CA, 3/28/2006
I made this photograph on a sunny windy afternoon looking north from the sandstone bluffs at the south end of California's San Gregorio State Beach. The wind was strong enough to put a lot of ocean spray in the air, creating a fair amount of atmosphere, softness, and depth throughout the scene. The nearby cliffs are adorned with colorful ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis). I've always loved how the ice plant along the coast changes color; in mild conditions it's green, but in this harsh marine climate it turns yellow, orange, deep red, and even purple! At lower center San Gregorio Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean. Historically this creek was a coho salmon spawning site. For three days in October 1769 Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà's expedition camped at this beach to rest and treat their sick, during his first and failed attempt to reach Monterey Bay. They would go on to discover San Francisco Bay instead. This coastal region of California was later part of Rancho San Gregorio, a 17,783 acre Mexican land grant, given in 1839 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Antonio Buelna. San Gregorio is Spanish for Saint Gregory. On the horizon at left is Montara Mountain, and the distant peak just left of center is Corinda Los Trancos.
