San Elijo State Beach Bluffs

Author's Comments

I came here in November on a Tuesday afternoon, and I had the bluffs almost to myself. That tells you something about San Elijo. The campground sits right at the edge, RVs and tents lined up along the cliff like spectators, but the beach below stays quiet in the off-season. The stairway down feels like a small commitment, and most people do not make it. What you are looking for here is a tide below a foot. The reef comes out of hiding then, dark and textured, full of small pools that catch the sky. Time it for the hour before sunset in fall or winter, when the light rakes in low from the west and the layered sandstone in the bluffs goes from beige to something closer to amber. The strata read clearly in that light. You can see the slow centuries of it. The view south is the gift. Torrey Pines rises in the distance with that unmistakable silhouette, and on a clear winter afternoon the whole coastline stacks up in receding shades of blue. A long exposure flattens the surf into something soft and pulls the eye through the reef toward that far headland. I have made the photograph a few times and never quite the way I wanted. The light moves fast at this hour. The tide is already turning. You work quickly and you accept what you get.

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