CHAPTER III 



A LANDSCAPE OF BEAUTY AND MEANING* 



"When the seas are running high, as they so often do at Point Lobos, the 

 huge waves, with their heaving, burst and drag, grip the attention and 

 rouse the emotions. This spectacular impact upon shore forms of extraordi- 

 nary variety stirs the mind to some appreciation of the vast power and 

 dramatic quality of the forces here at work. 



But on every hand, and in every kind of weather, other phases of the 

 same great drama become apparent, more and more impressive as one's 

 understanding grows. 



The functional adaptation of a richly varied vegetation, marine and 

 littoral, is directly traceable to the impact of waves and currents, of ocean 

 winds, and windborne spray and spume and fog — from the lithe seaweed 

 up through the tapestries of rock plants to the gnarled cypresses and the 

 wind-moulded pines. 



The cypresses tell a poignant story of survival in a battle against great 

 odds, twisting and buttressing themselves against the thrust of wind and 

 pull of gravity, extracting vigor from the driving sea fogs and adapting 

 themselves to drenching sprays of salt that sometimes crust the soil with 

 white and rout the advance of other trees. 



Whole communities of living things are shaped in every vital detail to 

 play their strenuous parts in the everlasting drama of the sea and shore — 

 visibly so shaped, not only in response to these pervasive forces of sea and 

 wand but also in response to conditions of soil and rock which are themselves 

 the outcome of the same unending reaction of sea and land. 



Rocks now crumble visibly before the eyes, grain after grain; rocks 

 plainly formed in long-past ages out of pebbles on beaches, not unlike the 

 present, then buried deep until a new uplifting of the continent enabled 

 the sea to cut those other less ancient beaches which we see on the present 

 hillsides, terrace below terrace— until finally the ocean again reached and 

 hammered into the same old beach conglomerate, rattling its veteran peb- 

 bles back and forth, and with them battering out new clefts, chasms and 

 caves where planes of weakness had been formed by continental heavings. 



Infinite are the variations of meaning relating to this single dominant 

 theme, immensely inspiring in their significance, and expressed in forms of 

 exceptional sensual beauty. 



One sensitive to beauty and meaning in landscape, and disposed to ana- 

 lyze its appeal in terms of pattern, form and color, finds in Point Lobos 

 Reserve and surrounding country a great variety of types. An attempt 

 to classify them would reveal as worthy of specialized appreciation such 

 types as: (a) the seaward margins of the cypress grove; (b) the cypress 

 forest interiors; (c) glades and meadows on the cypress forest landward 

 margins; (d) Big Dome cliffs; (e) open points jutting into the sea; (f) the 

 littoral areas and sea caves; (g) open saddles; (li) open hilltops; (i) high 



• By Frederick Law Olmsted and George B. Vaughan. 



When the seas run high at Point Lobos, 



the onlooker is gripped by the power and dramatic 



quality of the forces at work 



(19) 



