California Dreamin' Series 2: Stinson Beach

Stinson Beach, taken from Dipsea Trail
Ah, summer! The flowers are in bloom. The California hills are brown. That magazine spread of Grande Anse Beach in La Digue Island, Seychelles may look so alluring, but it would take some effort and a whole lot of money to get there. 

You don't have to travel 3000 miles to enjoy the beach this summer.  Maybe a weekend drive or a family outing to a beach near you is all you need to enjoy summer.  For example, beaches are plentiful along the Northern California coastline: the Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay State Beaches, Santa-Cruz Twin Bridges, Lovers Beach in Monterey, and Stinson Beach.

Situated 20 miles north of San Francisco, Stinson Beach is the quintessential California beach town. Stinson Beach is crescent shape, surrounded by parklands of the GGNRA (Golden Gate National Recreation Area). It is usually the final stop for Dipsea hikers to soak their sore and tired feet. But you don’t have to do a strenuous twelve-mile hike to enjoy Stinson Beach.

The best way to access the beach is by driving along the Pacific Coast Highway 1[i].  I must warn you though to take precaution when driving onto Highway 1.  It's a two-lane highway on the edge of towering cliffs with no railings on the side of the road.  You will pass a few hairpin turns, but the drive is part of the fun and adventure in going to Stinson Beach.

You can stop at Muir Beach Overlook and enjoy the whole spectrum of nature - the green hills on one side of the road, and tall brown grass and chaparral plants growing between the rocks carved into small mountains on the opposite side and the Pacific Ocean with the water splashing on rocks below. You forget the craziness of a metropolitan city.

Taken from Muir Beach Overlook
As you drive into town, a firehouse, a couple of quaint gift shops and surf shop, a grocery store, a bookstore and restaurants border the street. There is a coffee and ice cream shop along the beach. The possibilities are endless when you get to the beach. You can go hiking, kayaking, hang-gliding, fly a kite or do nothing. A crab claw may be waiting for you at the beach.


There are only four restaurants in town. My favorite restaurant is the Sand Dollar. It has a rustic beach-town atmosphere with an outdoor patio. It serves the best calamari and some of the best seafood in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap." - William Blake



 NOTES:

[i] Listed in the book “1000 Places to See Before You Die”
All photos by the author

Comments

Post a Comment

NEW POSTS

NEPAL: Durbar Square Before the Earthquake

Image
I was writing my blog about Nepal’s UNESCO World Heritage and historic sites very late last night (05-12-15 in Nepal) when I happened to check my Instagram and saw a posting about Kathmandu after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal yet again. I get emotional just by looking at the photos and videos I took from my recent trip to Nepal let alone a video of a chaotic Kathmandu. I must confess to telling a co-traveler on our way to Patan's Durbar Square that I was ‘templed out’ (the term I used to describe how I felt after visiting so many temples).  Who would have thought that the visit to that last Durbar Square and seeing all the temples that day was a great blessing.  I have said many prayers of gratitude for the opportunity to see and capture in films and photos Nepal’s UNESCO World Heritage sites and the irreplaceable temples and statues before the April 25, 2015 earthquake. The Kathmandu Valley is comprised of three cities: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan. Each city features
Read more

The Banaue Rice Terraces: A Living Cultural Landscape

Image
My interest in exploring the northern part of the Philippines started from looking at a piece of art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California.   Among the display of ceramics and pottery engraved with gold and other decorative stuff,  a wooden carving of a male figure squatting on a platform with the lower arms on top of each other, resting upon his knees, caught my eye.  According to the docent, the wooden sculpture was called "Bului" which literally means "granary guardian" in the "Ifugao" tribe dialect. The carved wooden sculpture was set on a platform on top of another platform, a mortar.   Our docent explained the significance of the wooden mortar (which was used with the pestle, to separate the husk from the rice, sort of rice mill) and linked the story to the Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines built 2000 years ago by the “Ifugao” tribe. So two years and three hundred kilometers north of Manila later, we explo
Read more

Poland: The Wieliczka Salt Mine

Image
One of the most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites I visited this year was the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow, Poland. It was founded in the 13th century to mine the rich deposit of salt. Salt mining stopped in 1996 when the low price of salt on the world market made it too expensive to mine and the mine was slowly flooding. But miners did more than just extract salt. They left behind them a breathtaking record of their time underground in the shape of statues of mythical, historical and religious figures.  Part of the salt mine became an art gallery, chapels, cathedral, and underground lakes. Today, Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of the most visited National Monuments in Poland. For safety reason, less than one percent of the mine is open to visitors, but even that is almost four kilometers in length. There are 20 chambers to visit and 800 steps to climb of which 350 at the beginning take you down into the mine. You can’t just visit and wander around on your own. All of the visits
Read more