Año Nuevo State Park

[vavavroom]

Today I went to Año Nuevo State Park which is located by the shore about 15 minutes south of Half Moon Bay. Before I got there I stopped that Pilot Light Café which is housed in the Frank Silvestri (legendary local flight instructor) Terminal. I had the cheeseburger with a side salad.




Driving south to Año Nuevo State Park.


I parked near a trailhead and after a short walk, I crossed a surprisingly large concrete bridge.


Just around a corner, I could already see the ocean.


This is one of the lighter-colored beaches in the area with very fine sand. There are also sandstone bluffs.


In the various sedimentary rock layers, you can see a multitude of fossils. After a storm, you may find fossilized shark teeth and fossilized sand dollars that have been released from their rocky grave.

The beach is littered with rocks that came out of the soft sediment layers of the bluff.

 

[CharBaby]

Very nice pics, thank you for that.

 

[Barkleymut]

very cool....a visit to their website shows that they also have elephant seals in the area quite frequently.

 

[wemay]

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[vavavroom]

very cool....a visit to their website shows that they also have elephant seals in the area quite frequently.

Elephant seals are present in large numbers between fall and spring. Weighing up to 5,000 lbs nothing much stops them. At Drake's Beach on the Point Reyes Peninsula they often take over the parking lot that's right by the beach.

 

[wpod]

I wonder if the bridge was part of the old coast Highway1. 40 years ago you could see what was left over before it slid into the ocean in the Linda Mar area. I was like the now closed Devils Slide part.

 

[vavavroom]

I wonder if the bridge was part of the old coast Highway1. 40 years ago you could see what was left over before it slid into the ocean in the Linda Mar area. I was like the now closed Devils Slide part.

That's quite possibly the case. The bridge is roughly parallel and around 350 feet west of Hwy 1. The bridge is about 15-18 feet wide. It crosses the Año Nuevo Creek.

​

 

[ArPix]

Been there a few times to see the elephant seals. We saw the elephant seal pups at Drake’s beach too. I’ll have to try that Pilot Light Cafe next time. Thanks for the pics!