Montara State Beach

On Monday my geology class had our field lab at Montara State Beach (between Half Moon Bay and Pacifca). It is the most gorgeous hidden beach I have ever been to in Northern California. It is situated in a natural cove with lots of beautiful rock structures and clean, coarse sand. The water is uncharacteristically clear and blue for the California Pacific -- simply amazing.

 view of the northern end of the beach

 view of the southern end

 the most adorable little seashell ever

 a preserved channel -- too bad i have nothing to scale this to. you can see the layer of deposited sedimentary rock that once upon a time rested at the bottom of the channel

the biggest crab I've ever seen out of water. poor little fella was dying. oh well.

you can kind of grasp how clear the water is

oxidized iron within the sandstone