Limantour beach is great for running. It can get hard when the tide is high, then the sand becomes soft, but, hell, you burn twice as many calories this way. Run to the right or to the left. If the beach is too short of a distance, veer off to a trail that leads to Arch Rock. The options are endless.
This beach is great for anything: picnics, family outings, walking dogs and kids, running, or just walking along the beautiful freezing-cold Pacific Ocean. My recent discovery is the lagoon with sting-rays if you walk to the left of the parking lot. There are also colonies of seals at the tip of the peninsula leading into Drakes Estero through Estero de Limantour. The dunes there are amazing, they make me feel like I am on the set of "Dune" except the sand is real.
Four stars because of the stupid bridge they built and ruined the natural beauty of the swamps. Now it's a muddy mess, which made water fowl and herons and egrets abandon the place, leaving a sad scene. I guess, somebody had to spend the money... Some people just don't get it.
Formerly a Mexican territory, California became part of the U.S. after the Mexican War of 1848. The famous Gold Rush began in 1849, and the first lighthouses were built a few years later. These early lights, like the Point Pinos Light shown at right, were built in a what was then a typical New England style. Ironically, there are no examples of this style surviving in New England, so the only place to see these traditional New England lighthouses is in California.
Today the state's long coast has about 40 lighthouses, of which at least 24 are active. The coastal lighthouses include many famous and well visited light stations, but there are also some very little known towers. The lightship WAL 605 Relief, owned by the U.S. Lighthouse Society of San Francisco, is berthed in Oakland. There is no state preservation society, but local societies support most of the coastal lighthouses.
Interest in lighthouses is certainly high, and several new lighthouses have been built recently in Santa Cruz and Long Beach.