A short way down the Tomales Point Trail, I stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was a long-tailed weasel! He poked his tawny head from a hole in the middle of the trail.

It's hard to imagine living here. The weather sweeps in and out uninhibited by this little sliver of land. The terrain is grass, grass and more grass. It's isolated by water on three sides. The people who lived here had each other and a lot of cows for company. I'm sure the solitude suited some, but others must have gone mad.

What we have now is unfathomably beautiful. Each creature is a thread in the web of life. Each creature is perfectly adapted to its particular set of circumstances. No other creature could fill the Northern elephant seal's exact niche.

As we stood to go, I felt weightless. I had dissolved into the landscape. All that remained of me was an organic connection to the ways and means of sun, waves, wind and sky.

I discovered a piece of dried, white coral firmly adhered to a rock. Holding it in the palm of my hand, I felt privy to the secrets of a complex and intricate relationship forged beneath the sea.

I peeped through the gap between doors. The dusky interior looked mysterious and holy.

We were standing right on the San Andreas Fault.

The eeriness was augmented by inexplicable artifacts strewn around the pasture. This seemed a good alien landing site. There was also something weird about the energy.

Desmond made a wish. He didn't tell me what it was, but it might have had something to do with restoring dinosaurs to the earth

California poppies soaked in sunshine.

Drakes Beach is a sheltered bay used by elephant seals for pupping every year.

You know what I love about surfers? They're cool! You know what makes them cool? They march to the beat of a different drummer: the sea.

Who was screeching? I turned and squinted; amid the architectural treetops of eucalyptus and cypress, a vulture stood in silhouette against the grey sky.

I heard three chuffy sniffs and he dropped out of sight. A moment later, his head popped-up.

It is a strangely beautiful spot. The eucalyptus are huge and out-of-place as non-natives. Seasonal miner's lettuce intermingles with lush and deadly hemlock.

Douglas Iris popped-up along the road. A plum tree was beginning to flower.

Sapsuckers worked busily in a forested sanctuary.

Low tide exposes a whole world of underwater creatures.

This process of naturalization is aided by an exotic species of taggers who survive partially on canned beer drunk out of paper bags.

Going north along the beach I made a discovery: a waterfall. A stream was spilling over the granite cliff down onto the beach.