Broken Hill Overlook at Torrey Pines

Author's Comments

Most people who come to Torrey Pines walk the main loop and call it a day. The Broken Hill Trail asks for a little more, and what it gives back is a landscape that does not belong to coastal San Diego at all. From the overlook, the cliffs drop away in eroded folds of ochre and rust and pale cream, the kind of formation you expect in the desert interior, not a half mile from the Pacific. The horizon does the work here. Sandstone in the foreground, ocean behind, and between them a slope cut by centuries of runoff into something that reads almost like a small canyon turned sideways. I come in late afternoon in February or March, when the low sun rakes across the western face of the formation and the layers separate into bands of warm color that the midday light flattens entirely. Golden hour is not a cliché at this overlook. It is the only hour that shows you what the place actually is. The crowds thin as the day goes long, and on a weekday in winter you may have the view to yourself for the better part of an hour. Bring a wide lens for the full sweep, but do not put the long lens away. The compressed view of the eroded ridges against the surf below is the photograph I keep trying to make and not quite landing. Some places give themselves up easily. This one asks you to come back.

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