Crash california blues and violets washing into

blues and violets washing into orange at the horizon

Henry Mountains on the horizon

the full moon lit the sandstone walls bright enough to read by

The palms here grow straight where the trades let them and lean when they don't

Sam framed it tight

Crash california blues and violets washing intoAlex looks down on one of Big Sur's pocket coves where the sand reads pink against turquoise. The color is mineral, not light: manganese garnet erodes out of the cliffs above, washes down in the rain, and gets sorted by surf into the bands you see from overhead. Bigger storms make the color bolder. Most of these stretches sit a short scramble off Highway 1, hidden from the turnouts visible from the air, easy to drive past on the road.