by Michelle Alten –  Photographs by Wolfgang Kaehler

Isla San Francisco

We hike a trail through the desert past small-leafed elephant trees, prickly pear, and chain link cholla until we reach the skinny trail that climbs the red rocks and follows a ridge.  As we ascend, the view of the bay and a rocky bluff across the water become an artist’s canvas.  Bands of color paint the rocks like stripes in a petit four.  Hiking the ridge, I look down on a solitary cormorant, perched on a rock like a yogi seeking solitude.  Yellow-footed gulls on the beach below laugh, while frigate birds roost on a cliff ledge above the water.

Elephant tree                                                                                 Isla San Francisco colorful rock formations

After hiking the ridge, Wolf walks to a beach where aubergine sea stars bathe in sleepy pools.  I paddle board off the beach meditating on the tap, tat, clonk of the water drumming on the board.