Torrey Pines

Torrey Pine, Del Mar

Today I visited Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in Del Mar/La Jolla.  I drove past/through/around it a couple of times, because the entrance was cleverly hidden behind a car park giving access to the beach.  People had been telling me it's the #1 nature spot in San Diego, and I well believe it.  Somewhere I read the word 'wilderness,' and brought a full pack, thinking I might get some hiking done.  Once I got there, it was apparent that this was not that place, so I repacked a litre of water into the 20 litre day pack I carry for emergencies (it packs down into about 10cc, and would carry water nicely) and joined a volunteer-guided walk focusing on the vegetation and ecosystem of maritime chaparral.

Adobe house C.1923 v. Yucca and Chaparral

I saw the plant Hollywood was named for, saw and smelled more kinds of sage than I knew existed, and saw some yucca close-up.

I was befriended by a trainee guide, a small German lady who's been living in SoCal for 20 years, but "longs for a grey day."  It is true, the relentless blue skies and bright sunlight can become oppressive.  Sometimes you just do not want to "have a nice day."

I saw the Torrey Pine, a very rare plant named for a botanist who never saw one growing, dependent on fog for water, hardy, long-growing, gnarled and sea-dwarfed.  They hang on here, and only one other place.  Good for them, I say.

My photography was hampered, somewhat, by the presence of others, so I only got a couple in, and in any case no serious study of the pine for which all the fuss is being made.  I got to name, and maybe begin to recognise, and in some furtive and illegal moments *smell* some of the vegetation.

I enjoyed the couple of hours walking slowly and the companionship of the small crew of tourists.

Where is the solitude, though?  I asked the guide, and he said, for his, Sequoia NP was the place.  So ... maybe I'll set my sights on that.

Here's a gallery of the few photos I took.  The beauty of this place is subtle, and hard to find.  It's in the small things.

The guide told us that there's only one native species of ant here, the red harvester ant, and its population is collapsing because of the incursion of argentine ants.  We observed a little battle in the unremitting war.  It really doesn't look good for the locals, though:  as this radiolab ep explains.

So, if you look at the Oz bush ecosystems, they have really poor biodiversity, until you look at the scale of ants - all the biodiversity is there.  It was all I could do to stop myself mentioning this to the guide.  You can walk 50 metres in Oz, and you will cross the range of a dozen different species of ants.