Journals
December 11, 1999, 3:00 pm
Description: A walk around the tenth level of the marine terraces on Palos Verdes Peninsula with panoramic views of the Portuguese Bend area and across the channel to the islands. Excellent for geology and history.
Weather: Clear, calm and mild.
Highlights of the Walk: Santa Catalina Island seems so near today that I want to reach out and touch it. The ocean lives up to its name, "peaceful". Slick, smooth bronze patches reflect the low afternoon sun of the nearing winter solstice.
Marine terraces are not uncommon along the California coast. Here, there are thirteen exposed. The LAX radar domes, giant white golfballs, perch on the top level on San Pedro Hill. The trail is on the tenth terrace high above Abalone Cove. The lowest level at Inspiration Point reveals basaltic rocks, excellent for tide pools. Astonishingly, another rock of volcanic origin, bentonite, is responsible for the tumbled topography between the top and bottom terraces. Bentonite, a clay-like substance used to line pools because of its impermeability to water, is implicated in the infamous landslides of this area. Apparently, it becomes very slick when wet and the material above, especially if it is sloping, slides off.
It is difficult to take my eyes off the rapturous views and appreciate the drab, dull colors of this land at the end of the dry season--the bedraggled gray sticks of the saltbush and sagebrush, the drooping dun-colored grasses, and the dusty beige of the stones. A cottontail rabbit with its beady brown eye, mottled fur and fluffy white tail blends in perfectly.
But, I am drawn by the odor to look at the fresh green fronds growing at the base of the sweet fennel, and, better yet, to smell it. Like licorice some say, others anise; whichever it is, the scent is very appealing. Native California snails of all sizes, striped white and pale brown, cling to last year's stalks, basking in the sunlight. California bush sunflower has cheerful yellow daisy-like flowers with brown centers. Emerald prickly-pear pads are highlighted with golden spines and topped with ruby fruit.
The history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula could be told by its plants. There are food and beverage plants like lemonadeberry and prickly-pear cactus from pre-Columbian times, medicinal plants like horehound, mustard and castor bean from the mission period, hitchhiking plants like tumbleweed and wild oats that arrived with feed grains during the cattle era, and landscaping plants like acacia and eucalyptus that escaped from large estates of the early 1900s.
At the end of the trail, I watch the sun set in a blaze of gold between the twin peaks of Santa Barbara Island. How much better can it get?
How to get there: From Palos Verdes Drive South, turn onto Hawthorne Boulevard, then right on Crest Drive to Highridge. Park on the street. No toilets.
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