So this cute little article in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Travel section extols the virtues of Morro Bay as a nature lover’s paradise:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/09/TRIG19SNA7.DTL&type=travel
Yup, those birds sure do look pretty. And all that stunning slate-blue water, those peaky…er…peaks, the rolling surf–all 100% part of the Morro Bay landscape.
But take a close look at this picture. Something is missing. It’s missing from the south-facing beach shot in the Chron article too.
What is it?
Here it is!
Welcome to the northern end of the beach at Morro Bay. Most every press and promo photo you’ll ever see of this bay carefully avoids these three slender megaliths.
Oh that pesky human peripheral vision! It does such a number on beach lovers at Morro Bay.
The stacks cast a certain pall at Morro Bay. Their absence in all the pretty pictures is a trick photographers can pull off, but in real life, the smokestacks loom over the beach and its surrounding town, wrecking many in-person views and creating an industrial feel in what wants to be a resort town.
Oddly, the article mentions but does not trumpet the true good news about Morro Bay. Prices. Because many Californians prefer less gratuitous signs of pollution on their beach vacation, the motel rooms along Morro war for guests. And with the state park sitting right there, camping can be a viable alternative. Restaurants offer cheap seafood, and the attractions run to hiking, birding, and strategic beach towel positioning to avoid the northerly sights.
“Every prospect pleases and only man is vile”, huh?
Personally, I’m not quite ready to return to the pre-industrial age.
By: M` on October 11, 2009
at 9:02 pm
Hm…I seem to have missed my target. I’m not so interested in the pre-industrial age either. I was going for something more along the lines of “the truth, the WHOLE truth, and not just nothing but the truth” in travel writing.
To me, it seems that billing Morro Bay as a stunning nature preserve without ever showing or even mentioning that it’s got a huge power plant with tall and extremely noticeable smokestacks is…a touch disengenuous. If I’d read the Chron article, booked a trip to Morro Bay to chase egrets, then showed up to the place, I might be a little bit disappointed. And unhappy with the Chronicle.
I don’t find power plants particularly attractive–they tend to be built with an eye for functional rather than fashionable architecure. They are necessary to the modern life I adore, but I don’t want to stare at one throughout my beach vacation.
If it makes you feel any better, I think that the much lauded modern “art” architecture of the Centre Pompidou in Paris looks like a power plant that’s been finger-painted by a four-year-old. And I don’t want to look at it while I’m on vacation either.
It’s not about tearing down the infrastructure. It’s about enjoying the aesthetics. What can I say–I’m deeply shallow that way.
By: lizscott on October 11, 2009
at 11:42 pm