"Very gradually I became aware of the sound of ocean surf. . . . The trail made a steep descent — and there was a fine wilderness beach with not a soul in sight."
In a quiet moment in northwest Washington, author Merrill Windsor captures the essence of a pristine stretch of America's Sunset Coast. Over many months, he and photographer Jim Sugar traveled the length of this famous shore, meeting its people and exploring its dra¬matically varied terrain.
"What impressed me most of all was the overwhelming presence of the ocean," says the author. "It is aggressive and demanding. If it cannot captivate you with its beauty, it will force your attention with its violence."
His story begins at dawn in San Diego aboard a fishing boat, the Mary Ann. From there he follows the coast highway north to Santa Barbara and San Francisco, and on to Oregon and Washington. Along the way he makes stops at military bases and commercial ports, artichoke fields and cranberry bogs, a sea lion cave and a salmon ranch.
He soars in a sailplane above seaside cliffs. He becomes a temporary "war correspondent" during a Marine landing exercise. Later, he and Jim Sugar cling to the deck of a Coast Guard rescue boat on a training mission in 14-foot breakers — "the wildest and most exhilarating ride I had ever had."
Still, he always finds time for lively conversation. Whether he talks with an eminent scientist or a cable-car gripman, a harbor commissioner or a lighthouse keeper, a woman logger or a violinmaker, the words evoke this coast and its people.
"Sunsets, seascapes, dunes and lakes and woods," says an artist-photographer, explaining why he lives by the sea. "There is indescribable beauty here. ..."
Illustrated with more than 150 color photo-graphs, America's Sunset Coast presents a portrait of a spectacular shoreline in all its variety. Text and pictures offer a lasting vision of pounding surf — and the sun descending over a boundless expanse of water. Together, they capture the special quality of life at the ocean's edge.