Black Sand Beach(es)
Aug. 5th, 2025 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerNorth Coast Roadtrip travelog #7
Shelter Cove · Sun, 27 Jul 2025, 10:30am
Life's a beach. Sometimes it's a dreary beach. Alas that has been our experience this morning on the Lost Coast. We drove out here yesterday afternoon on our North Coast roadtrip and stayed last night at a nice inn perched on the cliffs. Alas all we've had to see for the high cost of lodging and food out here is fog. We knew fog would be a thing, but our weather apps promised us there'd be some clearing in the afternoon. Nope. Not while we've been out here anyway.
We lingered at our room at the inn this morning to see if the fog might lift like the weather forecast even today said it would. Still nope. So we decided to go visit some beaches in the fog. Nearby Shelter Cove are Black Sand Beach and Little Black Sand Beach.
We started with a drive to Little Black Sands Beach (photo) because it's just up the road from where we stayed. There's not a lot out here; just an end-of-the-road gravel parking/turnaround area and a crumbling bit of old road that serves as a footpath down to the beach.
That beach isn't really black sand, by the way. It is gravel. It's not particular fun to spend any time on. And it's not helped at all by the fact that a) the temperature is cool, b) the fog makes it so that we can't see much, and c) the water is super dangerous— as attested to by warning signs that caution visitors not even to dip a toe in the water, the ocean is so dangerous!
After visiting Little Black Sand Beach we drove up the road two miles to (big) Black Sand Beach. It was the same thing but... bigger. I actually preferred the smaller scaled of the little beach. It felt more intimate and more like a place we could have to ourselves. The bigger beach was far from crowded but there were usually a few other people in sight at any point. And the water was just as murderous.
In beauty I walk. In dreary, murderous beauty.
Shelter Cove · Sun, 27 Jul 2025, 10:30am
Life's a beach. Sometimes it's a dreary beach. Alas that has been our experience this morning on the Lost Coast. We drove out here yesterday afternoon on our North Coast roadtrip and stayed last night at a nice inn perched on the cliffs. Alas all we've had to see for the high cost of lodging and food out here is fog. We knew fog would be a thing, but our weather apps promised us there'd be some clearing in the afternoon. Nope. Not while we've been out here anyway.
We lingered at our room at the inn this morning to see if the fog might lift like the weather forecast even today said it would. Still nope. So we decided to go visit some beaches in the fog. Nearby Shelter Cove are Black Sand Beach and Little Black Sand Beach.
We started with a drive to Little Black Sands Beach (photo) because it's just up the road from where we stayed. There's not a lot out here; just an end-of-the-road gravel parking/turnaround area and a crumbling bit of old road that serves as a footpath down to the beach.
That beach isn't really black sand, by the way. It is gravel. It's not particular fun to spend any time on. And it's not helped at all by the fact that a) the temperature is cool, b) the fog makes it so that we can't see much, and c) the water is super dangerous— as attested to by warning signs that caution visitors not even to dip a toe in the water, the ocean is so dangerous!
After visiting Little Black Sand Beach we drove up the road two miles to (big) Black Sand Beach. It was the same thing but... bigger. I actually preferred the smaller scaled of the little beach. It felt more intimate and more like a place we could have to ourselves. The bigger beach was far from crowded but there were usually a few other people in sight at any point. And the water was just as murderous.
In beauty I walk. In dreary, murderous beauty.
