WC #285 - Arroyo Sequit Creek

This swollen and enraged creek normally exists as a tiny, placid creek as it enters the Pacific ocean at Leo Carrillo State park. The creek meanders under the Pacific Coast Highway. The handrails on the right are handrails alongside a path leading to the tide pools at Leo Carrillo State Beach (South Beach). When I took these photos, the campground had been emptied and was closed. The parking lot off to the right side in this image was under water. 6 or 7 dumpsters were askew in the parking lot. The kiosk were customers are normally greeted was under water.

It started raining on December 26th, 2004 and it poured for days. Turned out this was the second or third wettest winter in the history of Los Angeles.

And there I was parked in a 16' Casita trailer within 20' of the ocean.

Did I consider leaving? You bet I did. For close to a week, I saw nary a soul, including the park rangers.

This photo was taken with a D100 camera with a F3.5-4.5 lens on January 9, 2005. All of the photos were taken as hand-held photos and the camera, needless to say was on "Automatic." I simply wanted to record for posterity what was happening.

The whole series can be viewed at:
http://www.hy-tec-training.com/PacificStorm/index.htm

Looking forward to your comments on this event as well as these photos.

Ciao ;^)

Carol