Muir Beach Sunset - Celestial Alignment - 2/25/12

          After returning from a great trip at Salt Point State Park I was still craving a colorful sunset. Late in the afternoon there was scattered cloud cover in the sky and so I ventured out to Muir Beach to catch sunset. I parked in the bustling dirt lot and set off across Redwood Creek and onto Muir Beach.
          The beach was as busy as usual so I trudged south to the more secluded rocky shoreline where I had the place to myself. I’m sometimes amazed how a place can be so crowded and yet just a few hundred yards away one can find complete isolation.
          I scouted around before settling down a top a rock outcropping and watched as sets of waves rolled in and the sun dipped closer to the horizon.
**

Going... Going

Gone!
          Like Autumn leaves the few remaining wisps of clouds began to change colors. As dusk turned to twilight the clouds continued their transformation until the last hue of pink dissipated into the prevailing darkness.
          I hung around for a while as I knew that Jupiter and Venus would be aligning with the Moon, a short lived celestial display lasting only a couple of days, and I hoped to capture an image.

Celestial Surf
          Back at the beach most of the crowds had dispersed apart from a couple of groups gathered around two blazing campfires. I couldn’t resist stopping and warming up my hands as well as firing off a few long exposure frames.

Campfire Stories

Campfire Romance