JD-0195
Sea Cave Entrance, Sonoma Coast, California
© 2004 Jerry Dodrill

The craggy North Coast of the Pacific Ocean is riddled with deeply carved sea caves, bored into weaknesses in the stone. Along the Sonoma Coast, the stone is composed of granite, volcanic tuff and sandstone. Of these, the granite along Bodega Head offers the most spectacular, but inaccessible and dangerous caving. Due to tidal patterns, a route through the tunnels is only possible a couple days per year and the terrain is so slimy it's almost impossible to walk upon. Stepping into the tunnels is like entering a portal into the underworld. You are a foreigner. You don't belong there. There is no hope of rescue. Your every step takes a life. Yet with each step, the explorer within you is further awakened, the naturalist is born and the artist thrives. Every color in the universe is present here and anemones cling to the walls like alien life forms. Besides space, the ocean really is our last frontier.