Big Sur and Pink Garnet Sand

I took another trip to Big Sur yesterday and my friend Cece came with. It was so beautiful, must have been 70 degrees. First we stopped at Big Sur Local Color Gallery for me to deliver some more scarves and stoles for them to sell. Business has been slow for them as well as all the shops there. After the big fire this summer things were slow getting back to normal. Now they are bracing for mud slides. Literally, we watched as cranes were unloading big concrete retaining wall pieces and placing them along road sides and buildings. Hillsides that were barren had retaining walls high up on the sides and I have my doubts about how much good that's going to be. Larges wire nets are along the roadsides too. If the rain predicted comes tomorrow and Friday there is a good chance of runoff. Many locals said they are more concerned about the mudslides than they were the fires. I left my wares anyway, signed the waver that were the mud and water to inundate the premises I would not hold the gallery, the building owner, etc. liable.

Cece and I then went to Nepenthe and had lunch and a little shopping in the Phoenix shop and then onto Pfieffer Beach. It was a summer day in February. We walked all up and down the beach, collecting shells and looking out at the ocean. Neither one of us had our camera so all these pictures are of other times I was there.



One interesting fact about Pfieffer Beach is the pink sand, some call it purple and others red. I had been there and gathered it before but only just discovered more about it. The park ranger told me it was garnet. I was skeptical so when I got home I search and sure enough found out more about it. You too can search garnet sand and find all the chemical properties and uses for it but in a nutshell: "this beach has unusual purple sand, from manganese garnet particles washing down the hillside." Here's a picture of it and below that is a picture of a black sand beach in Kauai. I don't know why I'm attracted to these colored sands or why I have collected samples. It something to add to all the shells and coral from all the beaches I've ever been to I guess.