A Tale of Two Bridges - Pismo Beach CA

This post is about side by side bridges in Pismo Beach. The coast road was the only thru-road on this part of the coast. The railroad bridge was built in 1909, and the road bridge in 1911. A little bit of history that won't be with us for much longer.

Old Coast Road Bridge
aka "The Bello Street Bridge" or "The Pismo Creek Bridge"

Railroad engineers made sure that the tracks would be laid on the most level ground possible, and take the path of least resistance. Many years later when auto roads were being constructed, they took advantage of the work that RR engineers had already done. As a result, the early roads were usually built very close to existing railroad routes. These two bridges are a good example of this. 

The railroad tracks on the left, and the coastal road on the right. To those of you that have traveled on Pacific Coast Highway (Route 1), or the Hwy 101, along the coast; can you imagine using this little road?

Not much of a road now. I'm looking for some historic photos of what it looked like back then.

 The 1911 coast road bridge

Those of you that have been around here for a long time, know that I would usually take some photos while walking across the bridge. Not this time! It is really rotting away. 

It's not much of a bridge anymore, but it does make a good trellis. 

If you look closely, especially in the upper left side, you can clearly see that this bridge is going to collapse one of these days.

Say what? That doesn't sound very refreshing.

Old Coast RR Bridge

This RR line is still in use.

1909 

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Dinosaur Caves Park - Pismo Beach

The central coast of California is one of the most beautiful coastal areas anywhere. 

Dinosaur Caves park is in the little City of Pismo Beach.

Most city parks are set up around sports and recreation. However, you won't find any baseball diamonds, tennis courts, or even a swimming pool in this one.

What you will find is an amazing coastline. Cliffs, coves, and lots of gorgeous views. The little town of Shell Beach is on the other side of the park.

 I have NO IDEA why they call it Dinosaur Caves. I didn't see any of either.

 Okay, kayaking qualifies as a sporting activity.

 Also fishing! Hope she doesn't slip. It's a long way down.

 This was a pretty cool sight

 There's that kayak again. Is it safe going through that "dinosaur cave?"

Okay, so it wasn't very thrilling at all. Pretty much all I have for this post is photos. So I had to play it up a bit. Umkay? I'll shut up now.

 Hey, I think they're following me around...

The photos really don't do this place justice. Hard to get the smell, the wind, and the sounds of the ocean in a photo. Hope you enjoyed the photos...



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Black and White - group 1

As a change of pace, I thought I'd start sharing some of my B&W photos. These are from "The World in Black and White" website. A few of them have been posted here before. Some are old, some are new, and some are middle aged. Counting me, there are currently 13 people who contribute to the site. No narratives to read. A title, a photo and a name. That is it. Of course, comments and generous gratuities (20% please!) are always appreciated...

 Port San Luis

Sequoia National Park (in May)
My wife was prepared for all potential emergencies... She had an umbrella! 

 Oceano Dunes

Little Miss Attitude (she was the one daring lightning to hit here a couple of posts ago) 

Pismo Beach

Spooner's Cove - California Central Coast

A couple of weeks ago we spent some time on the central California coast. One day we were looking for a place called Los Osos Oaks (The Bears Oaks) to do some hiking. As sometimes happens, the trail-head wasn't where our GPS said it was supposed to be. So we kept driving.

Instead of what we were looking for, we saw this. We both love the ocean, so we quickly forgot about our hike through the forest.

This photo was taken in front of the white building in the left side of the above photo.  Apparently, we had entered Montana de Oro (Mountain of Gold) State Park without knowing it. I'd heard of the place, but knew nothing about it. Anyway, this old wooden building (now a little museum) was once the ranch house for the 7,000 acre Spooner Ranch. This photo also shows the north side of Spooner's Cove. There is a lot of other history associated with this place, but I think this is enough for now.

Here is the southern side of Spooner's Cove.

This is the right side of the cove again. A lady working in the ranch house told me that there was a major archaeology dig on top of the hill. I saw a trail going up that way and knew we'd be checking it out. The lady then said that there was nothing left up there. Too bad! We settled for sniffing out some sea glass on the beach.

A nice little natural arch.

I'm sure that dog was supposed to be on a leash, or maybe not there at all. Still, it made for a nice photo.

You can see the ranch house on the very left hand side of the photo. That sharp point jutting out into the cove (on the left), is the end of the south side of Spooner's Cove (from the third photo).  The ranch (and now the park) has over six miles of ocean front. Most of it consisting of beautiful and rugged coves.

The scene in the last photo, was directly behind me.  This is the foundation of a storage building that was used to store crops, lumber and sheep products over a hundred years ago.

before being dropped in this gravity chute, which ended at a freight loading area for...

The ships that would dock at the edge of this rocky outcropping.

I was only being stupid here to show you how steep and far down it was to the ships. The actual trail is about 10 yards behind me.

A photo of the cove from way back in the day.

I'll shut up for a while now.

We found a way down into this one.

Each of these layers was the sea floor at some time in the distant past.

For those who have heard of it, that is Morro Rock in the distance (in front of the mountains)

This part of the trail is roped off, but that doesn't stop some people! Like my wife...

If you are ever in this area, I strongly advise you to come and see this place. There are also many great hiking trails in the area.




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