Journeys›Photograph

Sunny Winter Weekend on Carmel Beach

·Carmel-by-the-Sea, California·#winter#california#beach#carmel-by-the-sea#coastal-landscape
Gnarled tree with exposed roots on a sandy landscape under a clear blue sky, with other trees and distant buildings.

A winter weekend in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Monday morning went to the beach itself. Down the sand ramp at the foot of Ocean Avenue, past the old cypress leaning over the dunes with half its branches bare and the other half still green, roots washed out into a knot at the base.

The beach runs about a mile of white sand along the bay, and it was busy in the winter way — dog people everywhere, dogs off leash the whole length of it, surfers sitting in a small clean swell. Across the water you can see the fairways of Pebble Beach running along the bluffs on the far point.

We walked south along Scenic Road, which has a string of stairways down to the sand and a run of houses worth gawking at — a low stone one out on its own rocky point with cypress growing right through the terrace, and further on a stone place built like a small castle, with a fence woven out of dead cypress branches. Sixty-some degrees in February. Hard to argue with, coming from Truckee.

A wide sandy beach with ocean waves, people walking, and a distant tree-covered coastline under a clear sky.Two people smiling, wearing sunglasses, on a sunny beach with ocean waves and a distant coastline.A sandy beach with ocean waves, a distant treed coastline, and several people walking on the shore.A sunny beach scene with people and dogs walking on the sand, ocean waves, and a distant forested island.People stroll on a wide sandy beach with ocean waves, a distant forested coastline, and a blue sky.A sunny beach with dark trees in the foreground, blue ocean waves, people and a dog on sand, and distant houses.A sunny beach scene with waves, distant houses on a tree-lined coast, a few people, and dark cypress trees in the foreground.A sunny beach with blue waves, a rocky shoreline, green trees, houses, and two people walking on the sand.Waves crash on a sandy beach with a large, moss-covered rock in the foreground.Blue ocean with surfers, a beach, a golf course, and houses on a tree-covered hill under a cloudy sky.A stone house on a rocky cliff with large trees overlooks an ocean with waves and a sandy beach.Stone buildings with dark roofs are nestled among large, gnarled trees behind a rustic branch fence.

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