Golden Gate Photo - North Coast Gallery

Golden Gate Photo - North Coast Gallery
Fine Art Photography from the North Coast of California.

The North Coast of California is renown for its giant redwoods, foggy weather, rugged coastline and surf, and earthquakes. At the beginning of the Cretaceous Period (140 million years ago), redwoods dominated the northern hemisphere. The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) of California's north coast is one of three remnants of their former glory. The other two are the giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada and the dawn redwood of China.

The world's tallest living thing is a coast redwood found in Redwood National Park at 368 feet (112 meters) tall. Skipping along the coast north of San Francisco to Punta Gorda, the San Andreas Fault zone shears away at the coastline. But north of Punta Gorda, the seafloor is being forced beneath the North American Continent, and it is this subduction zone that is one of the most seismically active areas of the United States. In this region, there have been 11 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger since 1980! The linear ridges and valleys of the north coast make up the northern portion of the Coast Ranges, one of the stops on the Geomorphic Provinces Geotour.

	Hillside Trail, Muir Woods Less than an hour drive north of San Francisco, Muir Woods is 560 acres dedicated to the preservation of an old growth forest. In 1908, it became the nation's 7th national monument, and the first created from land donated by a private individual. Redwoods are among the tallest trees in the world. The tallest in Muir Woods is 252 feet. Most of the mature redwoods here are between 500 and 800 years old and the oldest ones are at least 1,000 years old. Print No. A99-32-5 More images from Muir Woods National Monument
	Forest Corona, Redwood National Park Established in 1968 and enlarged in 1978, Redwood National and State Parks protect old growth coast redwoods. It also includes prairies, oak woodlands, and coastal and marine ecosystems. Since 1994, the National Park Service and the California State Parks combined the Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith State Park, Del Norte Coast State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park into Redwood National and State Parks. These parks were designated a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve. Print No. A02-13-8 Here are more images of Haloes and related phenomena.
	Mendocino Coastline This view is from the South Gibesillah Gulch, looking southwest at the sea stacks just north of Fort Bragg. This is a beautiful day in one of the foggiest places anywhere. Print No. A99NW-2-5
	Harbor Seal, Shelter Cove This seal is warming up on the smooth water-worn volcanic and metamorphic rocks of this remote point along the coastline. Shelter Cove is also an access point to the Lost Coast Trails: miles of coastline accessible only by hiking. Print No. A99NW-3-2
	Shelter Cove Pillow Basalt and Chert Among the rocks jutting up from the surf, are ones that used to be part of the deep seafloor. The chert (lower left corner) are thin beds of silica formed from the deep sea deposition of the siliceous skeletons of the microscopic organism radiolaria. The pillow basalt (middle to right foreground) are pillow-shaped masses of the volcanic rock which form as lava erupts below the sea. Print No. A99NW-3-11

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