God’s-Eye View of the Abandoned Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
When the CZU Lightning Complex started as an apocalyptic 3:00am thunder and lightning storm and it began raining ash in Big Sur it was decided, two-days in, the planned quarantine-style camping trip was out.
Living in between the insulated bubbles of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, it’s sometimes easy to forget that us Californians reside in the most natural-disaster prone state in the US. Floods, earthquakes, wildfires… more? Check, check, and double-check.
There wasn’t much reliable road available. To the north, Napa and Mendocino were getting pummeled by their very record-setting blazes. In the east, Yosemite was pushing a sheet of toxic weighted-grey smoke towards the normally pristine California-Nevada border. And all the while Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park continued to battle two separate incidents along its northern and southern boundaries.
I decided to travel as far down to the south as I dared to the famous resort town of Santa Cruz, California.
Nestled in between Half Moon Bay, Monterey, and the Santa Cruz mountains (with “Coney Island of the West” aspirations that never materialized) Santa Cruz is the perpetually sunny town epitomizing California’s copacetic beach culture.
The city felt eerie, both from the absence of people where they should have been and the sight of those of us out and about when we shouldn’t. A few miles up the road from empty streets and police roadblocks were a decent amount of families and couples stretched and sun-tanning on the muggy beach. We either ignored each other as we passed or exchanged silent, furtive looks. As if in recognition of our shared guilt and mutual suspicion.
Meandering brought us right alongside the historic 19th century bathhouse-turned seaside amusement park: the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Complete with barred gates and signs displaying seagulls wearing masks that didn’t go far to combat the apocalyptic vibe.
The empty summer amusement park seemed like the dystopian cherry on top of a pretty surreal year. Pandemic, civil unrest, pending economic recession, and now wildfires? A sense of shallow stillness and crescive restlessness. And the acerbic taste of smoke. That’s what it felt like.
The following mini-series was taken using my DJI Mavic 2 Pro, equipped with Pgytech landing gear, lens hood, and Polar Pro ND4 filter. Initially I was a little nervous about the seagulls. But apparently, Santa Cruz seagulls are as unflappable as their hippie human cohabitants.
Note, links provided are not affiliate. It’s simply a way for me to share products I use and recommend.
