Posted on 12/22/2017 6:43:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
Crowds flock to Pfeiffer Beach in weeks leading up to, following Winter Solstice
Photographers chase it. Beachgoers are baffled by it. And at sunset, for just a few weeks in mid-winter, it cuts a fiery path across the undulating waves off the Big Sur coastline.
The orange glowing light that peeks through the Keyhole Arch on Pfeiffer Beach does not have a name. Photographers describe the fleeting phenomenon in adjectives: mystical, otherworldly, ethereal.
Camera-toting crowds flock to the beach in the weeks preceding and following the Winter Solstice, on December 21 in Northern California, when the sun sets and rises at its furthest southern point.
At this low angle - and only on a clear, low-tide evening - the sun's muted rays explode through the rock formation and project a tunnel of golden light. Capturing the event is somewhat of a coup for nature photographers, who are known to line up in front of the archway from late afternoon onward between mid-December and January.
"If you don't get there early enough to grab a parking spot, there is a good chance you will be turned away at the beginning of the long, windy road leading to the beach," says citizen Niranj Srinivasan of Seattle. A ranger turned him away twice on a recent visit, so he laced up his hiking boots and traded the winy drive to the beach for a steep hike down the bluffs.
It's a lot of effort for an ephemeral moment, but when the light lines up just right with the gap between the rocks, the effect is transcendent; the endeavor justified.
Pfeiffer Beach was closed to the public for much of 2017 after the now-famous failure of Pfeiffer Creek Bridge in Big Sur. It reopened to the public on October 13.
Love that place! Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Thanks for posting.
Cool!
Any good hikes lately? I’ve been out with the Meetup Midweek crowd. Did 9 miles and 1,900 feet at Sunol a couple days ago. It was a spectacular day after the rainstorm.
YW
Not since before Thanksgiving. Sunol sounds like a great hike.
We did the normal Cave Rocks loop, but added on a Flag Hill loop at the north end of the park. It had a completely different feel to it.
I was there around 1970; stood under the waterfall and hiked the beach before they tightened access so much. Stunningly beautiful
Me too. Love Big Sur. Spent half my life at Esalen.
never thought about it before, but now,,,,is it possible the keyhole man-made specifically to reflect the soltice?
We were camping out in the Mojave Desert and came across something similar. It was just before bedtime and we notice a natural “tunnel” in a nearby hill and the moon was shining right through it. A few moments later the moon rose above the hill.
Does look a little squared off
I don’t know od any evidence that the Ohlone had any technology to do something like that, or observances like that.
beautiful
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