Beach contrasts

Stories beach at low tide is a wide, sandy stretch, perfect for walking, making sand castles, sunbathing, watching the sky ...

Looking northwest, to the coast mountains.

But this afternoon, I turned south, to the seaweedy, slippery, treacherous rocks. That's where the critters live.

Long dikes mini-hogbacks* of sculpted sandstone, interspersed with fields of melon-sized rocks.

Correction sent to me via Messenger from a geologist friend:

Geologically, the sandstone ledges are strata, not dikes, which would crosscut the layers (by definition), and are usually igneous. Because the sandstone layers are at an angle, they could be called mini-hogbacks or cuestas.

Thanks, Jenny!

That green sea lettuce is slippery. I fell once, in spite of extreme caution. But every stone hides a new community.

Sometimes the rocks seem to have been tossed randomly on a flat sandstone table. By giants.

The sandstone mini-hogbacks hold tidepools well above the low tide level. And there are fish in the pools.

Just out of reach, two harlequin duck couples stand watching me.

And yes, there were critters, new and old. And a few mysteries. That's for tomorrow.

A Skywatch post.