If you visit Gualala Point Regional Park, the drive in will take you to this view spot. With the Gualala River lagoon, the town of Gualala on the right, and the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, Mike Nelson captured a beautiful sight.
This was taken a week ago Friday, when an unexpected storm brought significant rain to the Mendonoma Coast.
Thanks to Mike for allowing me to share his photo with you here.
As it happens every year in the spring, the Gualala River is closed at the river mouth by a big sandbar. Rick and I went to Gualala Point Regional Park to photograph it.
Once the river is closed, the mouth of the river is called a lagoon. When the river is open it is called an estuary. With the river closed it is a very safe river to kayak.
To rent a kayak on the Gualala River, here is the website for Adventure Rents: http://www.adventurerents.com/
The river will remain closed until we receive storms in the fall. Any Steelhead in the river are now trapped in luxury.
We've had early rains, enough to fill the Gualala River to the brim.You can see that the river is almost breaching the sandbar. This sandbar closes the river every year after the rains stop and creates a lagoon. The photo below was taken on November 19th.
Another storm hit on the evening of the 20th and when Rick and I went to the Gualala Bluff Trail to take a look on the morning of the 21st, the river was open and draining out to the ocean. The lagoon is gone, replaced by an estuary.
The Gualala opened at the northernmost portion of the sandbar. Muddy water can be seen in the ocean. Any fish, including Steelhead, that were trapped in luxury during the months it was closed were swept into the Pacific Ocean to continue their journey.
As I showed you yesterday, there is a lovely little lagoon on the northern portion of Manchester State Beach. There I saw two birds wading in the water. The one on the left was about half the size of the other one. Ron LeValley identified it as a Pectoral Sandpiper. The bird on the right is a Short-billed Dowitcher.
Below there is a portion of a boat, with the metal piece that held the anchor, that recently washed up on the beach. Someone has already incorporated it into a driftwood "building."
And below Mel Smith and Linda Bostwick are standing next to a small refrigerator. It's very heavy. This and the portion of the boat might be precursors of the tsunami debris head our way from the Japanese disaster.
We were lucky and had a sighting of an Elegant Sheepmoth for our own!
Yesterday, Saturday, was Coastal Clean-up day so Rick and I met Linda Bostwick and Mel Smith at the northern end of Manchester State Beach. The fog was just off the coast and the air was cool, perfect for scouring the beach and lagoon for trash.
Here's the path from Highway One. The woods contain walk-in campsites.
Below Linda Bostwick with her poodle, Devi, stand in one of the campsites.
As we walked further into the park we saw beautiful grasses and sedges. A group of Cattails waved in the breezes. The Point Arena Lighthouse stands to the far left.
Below is a beautiful, small lagoon. Tomorrow I will show you two Sandpipers who were fishing in it.
And here is the result of our labors. Rick, Mel and Linda with the debris we picked up. Two items were left on the beach because they were too heavy - a small refrigerator and a small but heavy tire. These could be precursors of the tsunami debris that will hitting our coast in the months to come.
