San Gregorio State Beach is a beach near San Gregorio, California, USA, south of Half Moon Bay. San Gregorio Creek widens to form a small freshwater lagoon in the park behind a sand berm, or barrier beach, which typically blocks the mouth of the creek, forcing the creekwaters to flow underfoot as they seep into the Pacific Ocean. During the rainy season the creek often cuts through the sand berm and flows directly into the ocean. A stone marker with a plaque commemorates the three days Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà's expedition camped at the beach to rest and treat their sick in 1769, during their failed attempt to reach Monterey Bay. They would go on to discover San Francisco Bay instead.
Coal Mine Canyon sits at the edge of the 120 mile wide Painted Desert, a sparsely settled region without many roads but covered by extensive areas of exposed, weathered rock. On the border between the Hopi and Navajo Indian Reservations in the vast desert of northeast Arizona, Coal Mine Canyon is a long way from any famous attractions. The canyon is not signposted in any way yet has become quite well known because of the amazingly colorful formations that line the upper end of the ravine. Coal Mine is one of many remote, little-visited sites in the Southwest where the main interest comes from the detail of the rock - the colors, forms and textures of the eroded sandstone.
