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Kehoe Seaside affords an extended journey again in time

The primary report of large sunfish stays on a Level Reyes seashore emerged through Instagram, the place a neighborhood Marin feed posted the image. Information shops picked up the story, increasing it to clarify that the 6-foot animal with its deceptively nonhydrodynamic-looking form was not simply your common mola mola sunfish however as a substitute was a uncommon mola tecta, or hoodwinker sunfish.

The stays have been found by a surfer, and after one of many tales recognized the situation as Kehoe Seaside, my intrepid companions within the open air and I made a decision that Kehoe could be the vacation spot for our common Sunday outdoorsing. We knew there was an opportunity that our mola quest would show fishless, however the climate was wet, foggy and funky — in different phrases, good for a hike alongside the Pacific coast.

This 0.6-mile path resulting in that nice ocean provided a couple of quirks, certainly one of which was a daylight sighting of a skunk foraging in a close-by tangle of shrubs. One other is that this path is the one one within the Level Reyes Nationwide Seashore the place canine are permitted. Primarily based on paw-print proof within the sands and an encounter with one jubilant black lab on the seashore, locals make the most of this opening. Canine are to be leashed always, which the jubilant black lab was not. His proprietor had left his personal pants hanging over some driftwood, so these two have been feeling fairly free about guidelines.

Snowy plovers will be seen at Kehoe Seaside within the Level Reyes Nationwide Seashore. Picture by George Kunze

The path from street to seashore passes via the homeland of the Coastal Miwok folks, the primary arrivals to the realm, the place they resided for hundreds of years. The seashore doesn’t bear a reputation associated to the Indigenous folks, nonetheless, however as a substitute is known as after a ranching household that also runs a dairy within the space. What you’ll discover there goes again a lot additional than people, although.

After taking the flat, straightforward path, which turns to free sand simply earlier than reaching the seashore, we opted to move north first, having no thought the place the sunfish had washed up. Simply at this turning is the Monterey Formation, layers of stacked rock fashioned from the silica stays of plankton that died tens of millions of years in the past. This uncovered little bit of the formation is placing, however what we discovered as we journeyed northward up the seashore was much more beautiful. Towering over the seashore are cliffs of laird sandstone, the place the sculpting of wind, sand and water has left deep impressions, a few of them nearly caverns, and carved lichen-like rock frescoes alongside the sides.

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