Beach Wednesday - Morro Strand Beach

It's Beach Wednesday!  Have you been looking at the other beach-y posts by other steemians today?

Morro Strand Beach

Last summer, during our family's trip to California, we went to many, MANY beaches.  I posted about Hendry's Beach last week.  Today I am posting about Morro Strand Beach, which is a beach just north of the Morro Rock in Morro Bay, California.  

It is a State Park & campground.  We stayed there for one night on our travels back up to Oregon.  The camp sites are separated from the open beach by a hill of sand.  When we arrived in the campsite we discovered that we would be pitching our tent in sand!  My daughter started finding sand dollars in the sand, and there were some left on the picnic table.  It was amazing to us that someone would leave so many sand dollars behind!  Cool!

Later the next morning, we discovered why they had left them behind...  There were hundreds and hundreds of sand dollars all over the beach!!!

My daughter & I started picking up many sand dollars.  And, after a while we started finding smaller & smaller ones.  I decided to start just collecting smaller ones because they seemed more cute & special.

This was a GREAT BEACH!!!  (beach-combers paradise!)

Not only were there sand dollars all over, but there were MANY sandpipers, very clear little waves, and amazing patterns in the sand.  There were also some surfers there, down the beach a little way.

I tried and tried to get closer to the sandpipers so I could take a better picture of them.  but, Nope!  They would NOT let me get closer.  They just kept running further away or flying away.  Silly sandpipers!  They were tall, and their beaks pointed down slightly.  (Can you see the surfers in the photo below, too?)

I just researched what kind they might be, and I think they were either Long-billed Curlews, or Wimbrels, and not actually true sandpipers, at all! 

Between the campground and the beach, along the trail to the beach, there were cordoned-off areas and many signs saying it was a Snowy Plover nesting area.  There were also many large reproductions of school-children's artwork about the Snowy Plovers, and most of them said "Save the Snowy Plover" and things like that. 

I didn't see any plovers until we were about to leave, and I only saw two.  Here they are.  You may need to zoom in.  They are small little guys, with much shorter beaks.

While my daughter and I had been busy collecting sand dollars and chasing the birds, my husband was discovering an interesting thing about sand dollars...  He had been trying to "skip" them into the water - like skipping stones.  And he was noticing that no mater how you threw the sand dollars (right-side up, or upside-down, or whatever!)  -they ALWAYS righted themselves (immediately it seemed) and landed face-up.  He was quite mesmerized by this phenomenon, and I have to say I tried it a few times, and it was pretty neat!

I then started noticing that the little waves coming up in one particular area of the beach were very, very clear, and transparent.  I found myself very interested in them.  I don't remember seeing such clean, clear little waves like that before.  Usually there is much more sea foam, or dirt.  And, many times the sea foam is more yellow.  These ones were crystal clear!  It was very refreshing to see them and walk through them.  I took many photos of them.  The photos don't completely capture how clear they were, but close.

Morro Strand Beach was a really fun beach to visit!  I still have many of the sand dollars, and have even painted beach scenes on some of them. (I'll save that for another post)

Have an Artful Day!!