The Doctor Seuss Hike
Written: Apr 22 '01
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Pros: The most spectacular beach hike in Southern California.
Cons: Do not hike if offended by nudity.
The Bottom Line: See pros and cons.
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| Urbanist's Full Review: Torrey Pines State Beach |
Note: This epinion is a reposting with minor edits. Written before the advent of the State Park category, it was first posted under "San Diego", which is not really what it's about ...
If I wanted to show someone the quality of fantasy that still clings to the idea of California, I would take them to the southern tip of the City of Del Mar, north of San Diego. I'd park at Torrey Pines State Beach (also the entrance to Torrey Pines State Park) and we'd hike south along the beach to the Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla, four miles each way.
For this is the landscape where Doctor Seuss lived. Everywhere you can see the inspiration for his worlds of impossibly suspended cushions of foliage, cloud, sand … and everywhere you can hear the silence between his words.
First, the eucalypts, eruptive and ancient, their foliage held in flat sprays that, yes, surely, are the billowy aeries on which Dr. Seuss's characters so often perch. Then the Del Mar bluffs … sand upon sand, an organic geometry that can't be described even with a whole National Park vocabulary of arches, pinnacles, spires – because here these are not exceptional or monumental but simply the way of the land and sea.
The sea. Facing nothing. That dead calm between ebb and flow. Its vast plane less terrifying than in so many places, perhaps because there’s no weather here, just fog and not-fog and sometimes patterns of high-cloud visible or partly concealed, but always the promise of sun. (Overheard: "I’m from San Diego; I don’t do weather.")
The bluffs. The layering of strata, some firmer than others, but all soft. The strongest layers are also the thinnest, so erosion leaves thin shelves where plants take root, as though the bluffs are presenting us with many miniature gardens on platters. Little things grow here, spill over the edge, occasionally fall with a crash.
The falling. Between the shelves, vast verticals of sand streaked with the lines of the constant sliding. Turn back to the sea, and the clouds nearing sunset echo these lines, gray vertical scribbles … rain? Anywhere else, I would think so, but no, it is the sun through very gray clouds, casting gray showers of light on the water. The sun and the stone are both falling like rain.
The not-falling. For this is the magic … the shelves of eucalypt and cliff, impossibly light and thin yet supporting whole worlds of life and drama. Look up! The hang gliders, two-dimensional parachutes, quick geometric scribbles in the sky, each supporting a human figure hanging from black cord. They move, rise, descend, return … in total silence.
Return on Del Mar Heights Road, and watch how desperately mankind has tried to stake his claims on a wisp of eucalypt, a ledge of rock, a slope of sand, a cloud, a ray of light. Amid all the visual noise of these claims, the vast plane of the ocean remains in your rear view mirror as you climb the steep slope. Then, suddenly, topping out, you see the valley of the interior, and dotted throughout its sky, dead silent again, rising or descending but not-falling, countless hot air balloons.
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: Anytime
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Hiking & Trails
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Epinions.com ID:
Urbanist
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Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 78
Trusted by: 72 members
About Me:
Streetwise, academically credentialed gay renaissance man. For real bio, click "more" in profile.
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