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For my final full day in Southern California, I drove up to Gaviota State Beach. There was no attendant at the parking booth like there was at Emma Wood so there was no one there to confirm if the day use parking pass I bought at Emma Wood State Beach (earlier that day) would be valid here so I paid the $10.00 to park here as well. I walked out to the beach and onto the long fishing pier. There were a few other people there fishing and wouldn't you know it, when I asked one of them "What's biting today?", his fishing pole started acting up and he caught something, but not a fish, rather a leopard shark! To put this in perspective, this was a shark that was less than 2 feet long and so he removed the hook from its mouth and threw it back in the water but not before I got a picture of it! Sadly, there was a shark attack just north of here a couple days ago at Surf Beach near Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc where someone was likely attacked by Jaws, a 16 foot great white shark!
My purpose for being here of course was to go railfanning. I will admit, trains here are few and far between but my other purpose here was to take in the scenery of the beautiful ocean and the mountains like I've done the past couple of days! The first train to come by was Train #14 - The Coast Starlight heading for Seattle, WA. After #14 came by, I took a few more pictures of the area, then sat in my car for a bit and checked in online with Southwest Airlines as I would be flying home tomorrow from LAX. Eventually, I walked back out to the pier again to photograph Surfliner Train #790 which was running to San Diego from San Luis Obispo. The train had single level equipment on it today! Once it came by, I hopped back in the car and drove back to Oxnard because I had to start getting ready to go home tonight since I would have to leave relatively early tomorrow to get back to LA to drop off the rental car by noon. Included here are photos taken during my visit to this awesome beach! |
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Just after I arrived, a few other people out on the fishing pier were pursuing their own hobby and ended up catching this
leopard shark instead! And no, the shark wasn't the one who was drinking (neither was I)!!! |
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Yes, I came here first and foremost, to go railfanning!!! Here we have Amtrak Train #14 - The Coast Starlight passing over the
bridge at Gaviota State Beach. I was standing on the fishing pier to get this photo. |
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A wide-angle view of Train #14 at Gaviota. I was so amazed by seeing this train atop that bridge that I totally
missed the private car on the end of the train!!! |
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| Some interesting rock formations next to the ocean at Gaviota with the Coast Starlight overhead! |
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Standing at the end of the fishing pier. That yellow crane can be used to hoist a boat in the water from the pier. One thing I wasn't
expecting was the stiff ocean breeze! And I thought downtown Buffalo was windy!!! |
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| A closer view of the crane you can hoist your boat into the water, along with the big bridge in the background! |
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| Another poor attempt at nature photography!!! |
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| Yes, that is a very long pier!!! |
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| More interesting rocks on the beach at Gaviota! |
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Pacific Surfliner Train #790 passes by Gaviota State Beach with a set of single-level cars. Every other day, this train uses single-level
equipment due to a shortage of bi-level Surfliner cars. |
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| The other end of Train #790 with P42DC #6 "pushing" the train towards Los Angeles. |
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I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them! Shortly after Train #790 passed through, I started heading back to Oxnard as I had to start getting ready to go home. Before I head home however, I have one more set of photos to show that I wanted to include in the travelogue that really didn't fit any one particular subject but I wanted to make sure they were still included. When all was said and done, I took just over 1,500 photos on this trip, with only what I felt were the best ones making into the travelogue! Check out those photos below... |
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