Leon Turnbull Photography

Ocean, sunset, waterfall. What more could you possibly want?

Our day on Saturday at the coast was relaxing and pretty much perfect. We slept in, not getting up for any sunrise shooting. We had breakfast and went to the beach, where we saw quite a few birds, including pelicans and egrets. After that, we explored the shops in Bodega Bay, had lunch, then went up to Salt Point State Park for the afternoon.

I’ve never been there before, but it has been on my list for quite some time to go there. It is a long, slow drive up from Bodega Bay, even though it is only 30 miles. That highway is as windy as it gets. When we finally arrived, we did a lot of exploring all afternoon. We walked along pretty flowers, and along the ocean. We saw plenty of wildlife. We even saw waterfalls.

There are two waterfalls that drop into the ocean at Salt Point State Park. Both are small, but the nicest one by far is at Phillips Gulch. This waterfall is only 15 ft. high, but when we got here in the afternoon, I knew right away that I wanted to come back to shoot it at sunset.

We went down to Stump Beach where we had our dinner, and saw a sick or injured seal come up on the beach. Poor little guy. We also saw quite a few birds here, including a couple osprey. After dinner, we returned to Phillips Gulch.

It wasn’t nearly as cold as the previous evening, in fact, it was quite warm, more like what I was expecting this weekend. But the warm weather makes for lousy sunsets. No clouds on the horizon, and again the sunset fizzled. But the evening light on the falls more than made up for the lack of color in the sky. It was a perfect place to enjoy the sunset, and we had the place all to ourselves. This location is a bit off the beaten path, and not very many people know about it. But if I’m ever back to Salt Point State Park, this will be my destination again for sunset (especially, if there are clouds). It would be even nicer in the winter when the waterfall is flowing a bit better too.