I got out early again this morning and swam out at Cardiff just north of Seaside Reef. For the most part the size had dropped off but it was still warm, glassy, not a speck of wind and sunny at 6:30am. Once again I had a huge stretch of water to myself, only a few guys out at Seaside and the usual crowd at Cardiff Reef. The sets were inconsistent and there was a lot of waiting around. A harbor seal was swimming around near me for a while, and squadrons of pelicans cruised by all morning. It was so still for the first hour that I could hear that soft sound of water ripping along the lip just as each wave would crest before folding over. The extreme low tide at dawn was helping the waves feel the sandbars and kick up. By 8 the tide has risen enough that all the juice was gone and it went flat. Beautiful but flat. I swam around for another hour picking off a few more sporadic set waves. I left at 9 only to watch Italy lose to Spain. I think this swell is done.
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Cresting wave, morning light, glassy water, surf. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20811
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Cresting wave, morning light, glassy water, surf. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20812
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Cresting wave, morning light, glassy water, surf. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20815
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Thank you for your patience. This is your official notification: summer is here. You are now free to dive in, a wetsuit is no longer required. Effective until September: casual Friday is expanded to include Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well. From this morning:
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Dawn patrol morning surf, hollow wave. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20797
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Dawn patrol morning surf, hollow wave. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20799
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Dawn patrol morning surf, hollow wave. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20800
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Dawn patrol morning surf, hollow wave. Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA.
Image: 20798
Location: Cardiff by the Sea, California, USA
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Got out for the first time in a long time this morning for a swim before work. Summer is here.
From a trip to New York City a few years ago: I took a boat around Manhattan Island and saw all the bridges that cross from various burroughs into Manhattan. This one is the Williamsburg Bridge.
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The Williamsburg Bridge viewed from the East River. The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on Long Island at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
Image: 11124
Location: Manhattan, New York City, USA
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Keywords: Williamsburg Bridge Photo, New York City.
Last one from Buckskin Gulch: a hiker considering the towering walls and narrow, convoluted passageway of the the Buckskin Gulch narrows. The trail continues behind the hiker, disappearing into the twisting walls so that it is hard to tell that it is even there. The floor of the passage is littered with large cobblestones, deposited there from upstream by powerful floodwaters that fill the slot canyon and carve it deeper into the sandstone with each passing year’s storms.
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Hiker in Buckskin Gulch. A hiker considers the towering walls and narrow passageway of Buckskin Gulch, a dramatic slot canyon forged by centuries of erosion through sandstone. Buckskin Gulch is the worlds longest accessible slot canyon, running from the Paria River toward the Colorado River. Flash flooding is a serious danger in the narrows where there is no escape. Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA.
Image: 20716
Location: Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA
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Here are a few backpackers walking through the Buckskin Gulch narrows. They are blurry because it is so dark in the narrows that a tripod and long exposure must be used, which caused the backpackers to smear across the photo as they walked while the stationary walls and ground remain sharp and clear. Check out the big log jammed between the sandstone walls! It was left there by a powerful flash flood some time in the past, and is a testament to the height and strength of those floods.
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Suspended log in Buckskin Gulch. Hikers pass beneath a heavy log suspended between the walls of Buckskin Gulch, placed there by a flash flood some time in the past. Buckskin Gulch is the world’s longest accessible slot canyon, forged by centuries of erosion through sandstone. Flash flooding is a serious danger in the narrows where there is no escape. Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA.
Image: 20723
Location: Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA
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This is a 360-degree panorama showing, in a single image, a hiker in Buckskin Gulch both coming and going. I set my camera on a tripod in the middle of the trail through Buckskin Gulch, leveled it with a bubble level, and spun it in a complete circle taking sixteen photos roughly evenly spaced as I did so. In two of the photographs I set the camera’s self-timer and jumped into the picture myself. Later, the images were then “stitched” together on a the computer with panoramic imaging software, resulting in the single image you see. Click on it to see it larger!
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Buckskin Gulch hiker. A hiker moves through the deep narrow passages of Buckskin Gulch, a slot canyon cut deep into sandstone by years of river-induced erosion. In some places the Buckskin Gulch narrows are only about 15 feet wide but several hundred feet high, blocking sunlight. Flash floods are dangerous as there is no escape once into the Buckskin Gulch slot canyons. This is a panorama made of sixteen individual photos. Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA.
Image: 20699
Location: Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA
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Pano dimensions: 4771 x 15311
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After an easy half-hour walk from the Wire Pass Trailhead, one reaches the end of the sandy Wire Pass trail. At this point the trail enters the first of two Wire Pass Narrows, two fine examples of sandstone slot canyons. Formed by years of water erosion these slots are really narrow, in some places only about two feet wide. Here’s a look at a hiker squeezing through the narrowest point:
After emerging from the first narrows but before reaching the second set of narrows, the hiker finds a brief widening of the trail with some cool striations in the sandstone:
More Wire Pass Narrows photos.
If you are going to hike to Buckskin Gulch or the North Coyote Buttes, you will likely start at the Wire Pass trailhead. Here is what it looks like at 6am. The dirt road you see, on which the trailhead parking lot is located, is the House Rock Valley Road. The few times I have driven it, the road has been fine. However, it is an unpaved road and I have heard that, following rain storms, it can be nearly unpassable. Just to be safe I have always used a high clearance vehicle on the House Rock Valley Road. A few cars are in the trailhead parking lot, with hikers readying their stuff for the day’s outing or still snoozing in their campers if they spent the night there.
Here is a look at the Wire Pass Trail itself, which runs down a sandy wash. It is quite unexceptional, and does not begin to hint at the wonderful sights that it will lead one to in either the Wire Pass Narrows or at the Wave.
While passing through beautiful Kanab, Utah, on my way to hike Wire Pass, Buckskin Gulch and the North Coyote Buttes, I spotted a cop on the side of the road, presumably speed-gunning people as they entered town. Last time I blew through Kanab I noticed it was crawling with cops, or rather, with speed traps: cops parked on the side of the road just out of sight until you were too close to slow down in time. This time I slowed down figuring if this guy was lurking there must be other cops around too. As I passed by Officer Man in his poh-leece cruiser, I noticed he had a strange complexion, sort of green and sick looking, and he had a wierd pencil neck. I slowed down to shoot him a little Whachoo looking at, badge buddy? glare. He had his windows rolled up but, since his engine was off, he had no A/C so it must have been 300 freaking degrees inside his car, and yet this guy is not even sweating. Eventually my road-weary pea-brain figured it out: the cop was inflatable, a mannikin, a dummy. I guess the real cop on duty — one of Kanab’s Finest — was off somewhat taking a little afternoon siesta with his honey and propped up this doppleganger as a placeholder until he got back. I just had to stop and introduce myself, never having had a chance to say “Officer, I suggest you use your night stick” to an inflatable adult novelty doll sporting a police costume and KMart shades before. He let me take his photo but wouldn’t comment on whether he got his training at the academy or came straight from the factory. Check out his bizarre little Hitler mustache, what’s up with that?
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Inflatable cop. Kanab’s Finest, hard at work. A Kanab police officer actively enforcing the speed limit in the town of Kanab, Utah. Kanab, Utah, USA.
Image: 20768
Location: Kanab, Utah, USA
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Inflatable cop. Kanab’s Finest, hard at work. A Kanab police officer actively enforcing the speed limit in the town of Kanab, Utah. Kanab, Utah, USA.
Image: 20769
Location: Kanab, Utah, USA
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Of course the blow-up cop did what he was supposed to — I slowed down. I’m guessing Kanab probably has the most cost-effective police force in the nation.
P.S. A Kanab resident who spotted my little blog posting kindly emailed me to say that Officer Man’s real name is Latex Larry. A search on the internet reveals that Latex Larry has worked assignments in Fredonia as well. Seems the guy works 24/7 and all over the place.
