Tafoni

TrailTale: Water, Wind and Fire at Salt Point

Tafoni sounds like yummy Italian ice cream, but no, it’s rocks. Just up the coast at Salt Point, swaths of sandstone have been exposed by fire, carved by water, and polished by wind.

Tafoni, from the Italian for “cavern,” is a phenomenon that carves sandstone into hollows and ridges, flowing like molten wax.

The darker parts are a hard shell of iron exposed by the ocean and polished by the wind. Symmetrical honeycomb patterns form from the constant spray of salt water.

The coast is notoriously foggy, then sunny, then foggy again. This cycle of wet and dry etches the cliffs in elaborate lace.

In 1851, San Francisco’s business district was destroyed by a fire. Small schooners slipped into the coves at Salt Point, carrying thousands of tons of sandstone into the city to rebuild. Tafoni, considered a defect, was left untouched.

Salt Point and this entire stretch of coast is rich with marine life, a smorgasbord for sea birds. Pelicans dominate in size and grace, tolerating smaller gulls and scoters.

Between the sun and the birds, this rock took on a different personality every time we saw it.

Great Blue Herons lurk alone, moving in slo-mo — avian sloths:

The Chaos Monkey escaped work to hang out with us. He’s changed since we last camped here 20 years ago.

The cliffs haven’t changed; they move at a different scale. While the Tafoni subtly evolves, the sandstone is millions of years old, deposited by uplift from the nearby San Andreas Fault. Salt Point sits on the North American Plate, adjacent to the Pacific Plate that grinds past it.

Sunset lights it all up:

As the sun dips below the horizon, the angle shifts, short wavelengths scatter, and longer reds and oranges turn the clouds into a sky that mirrors the rocks.

Ice cream cliffs and cotton candy clouds feed the soul, but the tummy needs love too, so on our way up we stopped in tiny Jenner, where the Russian River meets the Pacific, and had a crab sandwich that was pretty great. A couple days later, on our way back, the best clam chowder.

There’s a website called Atlas Obscura that catalogs the weird and the wonderful all around the world and you can search for what’s nearby. It’s easy to overlook what’s in your backyard and you might find something close to check out.