Los Gatos Red Rock Sculpture

April 13

Well, sometimes I want to pull up stakes (flukes, really) and sometimes I don’t.

Every day I’m keen to sail, but in Los Gatos we were in a spectacular anchorage without a town, hard to leave after only one day. Only 4 boats would fit in the northern lobe of the harbor, shaped like a cursive capital E, as the northerly swell coming in whipped up surf on the beach in the unusable southern lobe. The terrain was beyond beautiful.

The middle stroke of the anchorage E is a red columned rock face with rounded wind weathered stones making a walkway between the beaches most of the way until the wall collapses and dropping a boulder barrier. During our afternoon beach walk we hopped the rocks and enjoyed the eroded soft rock surfaces, perfect for barefoot balancing.

Erosion by gentle rubbing.
 We crossed most of the rocky wall in the background.

It's crab molting time, early spring in the Sea. The tide lines are littered with empty crabshells. The owners just back out and leave the old armor. At Los Gatos the most common crab was the speedy Sally Lightfoot, Steinbeck’s nemesis, known for chasing about on vertical surfaces just above the waves. Unlike water dwelling crabs, the Sally Lightfoots seem to choose high ground for disrobing. On the tops of rocks with a water view we kept running into their bright red-orange speckled shells, empty but facing out to sea as if on watch.

In a second walk ashore at low tide, I found by far the most spectacular tide pool of the trip. Where the red rock ends is a flat layer of coarse aggregate with sharp rocks cemented into dark substrate, probably once mud. This material forms the dangerous ledge at the harbor’s entrance. It stretched all the way around the point making a nice walkable apron at the bottom of the red rock cliffs. The cracks shape tidepools. One very large one was like a large tropical aquarium. Many of the same fish we see snorkeling, but miniaturized and much clearer — territorial black tangs, wrasses, little yellow and black striped guys, and a bright blue fish about 3 inches long that iridesced in the sunlight. I also found a live pearl oyster, many corals, black spiny urchins and tons of tiny snails barnacles and mussels.

.