On our second and third nights in Baja California Norte last month, we followed a wending dirt road north from the sleepy town perched next to the edge of Bahia de los Angeles, past the one-step-above primitive camping of Playa La Gringa, where a row of not-very-private three-sided outhouses sat just a stone’s throw from the beach, bounced over deep ruts and rocks in my uncle’s Subaru Forester over a hill, to finally arrive at a secluded beach where we had great views of Isla Coronado and its volcanic northern tip, Volcan Coronado.
We pitched our tents in a wash to give ourselves a windbreak and proceeded to spend the next couple of days exploring the nearby hills, throwing rocks in the water, eating fish tacos, digging clams, and attempting to make our old inflatable kayak seaworthy.
And, of course, I took some photos.
Our second day was a cloudy one, and windy like all the others. However, the clouds were fantastic: Large stacked lenticulars lingered over the bay for 24 hours, mammatus clouds, wave clouds, and a number of others passed overhead. All were probably a result of the stormy weather blowing in from San Diego, travelling a few hundred miles down the peninsula, and then getting shaken up while passing over Cerro Santa Ana (otherwise known as Mike’s Mountain), It made for quite a show for anyone who appreciates a well-constructed cloud.
While watching these wild clouds, I had thought ahead to sunset and hoped that the clouds would still be visible. In the hours before sunset, the western horizon had been packed with clouds, and my hopes for an interesting sunset had begun to diminish.
That evening, I had begun to help make fish tacos when my son alerted me to the fact that the sunset was about to go off, so I dropped my knife and went into full-on landscape photographer mode. I’m glad I did, as the sunset was probably the best we experienced on this trip, with 360-degree color painted over some of the interesting clouds that had been hanging around all day.
Finding a foreground was relatively easy. I really enjoyed shooting the varied pyroclastic rocks in the area; they made for interesting foregrounds with their differing shapes and colors.
