Today was my second shift as a whale watch docent on Bodega head, and the whales were cruising by like busses at the Embarcadero. I was pulling into the parking lot at 10am when I saw my first blow, and from there out it was Grays and possibly Humpacks (we only have the blows to go by, and some were at a distance, tall, and narrow)
It was a rough day for me, because I was having some sort of autoimmune episode and had been cold all morning (I had two sweatshirts on in my 74 °F apartment) and the cool 50-something breeze chilled me through.
I had been talking to the lead about the murr colony and Bodega Rock, and how I had no clue about where it was, and I couldn't find the Hole in the Head either, which most of my maps show in the middle of the head. She explained both, and told me that side of the head was more sheltered, and the wind isn't so bad, so I headed out to see the two things I hadn't yet seen but really wanted to.
I'm definitely going to need to bring binoculars to see the murr, although I could make out some blurry birds and some sea lions with my camera once I got above Bodega Rock.
Next, the whole in the head.
Turns out it's NOT in the middle of the head like my map showed, but is right off Campbell Beach. When Cay and I went exploring, we drove right past it, because it's on a little wooden walkway between the parking lots for the beach. It's a "blink and you'll miss it" kinda thing.
The thing is, I at first wanted to see if I could look down on it from the trails at the top of the head. Coming off the parking lot off the left turn on Westshore road (the east side of the Head) off in the distance there's signage which I assume is for the Hole in the Head:
After wandering up and down trails and driving up and down the road looking for new trails, I couldn't find any way to get out to that signage. Is it from an old trail that no longer exists? One that hasn't been made yet? Or could I just not find the trail?
Once I got to the Hole in the Head, I could look up and see the sign, which makes me pretty confident that the sign was for an overlook of the Hole.
But coming in from the parking lot, it was pretty easy to see how I had missed the walkway for the Hole.
The Hole in the Head was dug out for cooling for a planned nuclear power plant that was to be built on Bodega Head, until the locals put an end to it. It's now a hole filled with water... a pond which looks to be slowly turning marshy, despite it's depth. I'd like to see if the sides have eroded over time to decrease the total depth, because it definitely wasn't what I'd expect to see for a man-made hole of that size... of course, it was dug in the early 60s, so it's been there a long time.
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| Saturday's photo of the Hole in the Head |
By comparison, this is a photo from Sonoma Magazine from an article on the history of the nuclear plant and the Hole in the Head taken in 1963:
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