That's why they build them

Morbid amusement is an easily sated hobby. Have you noticed that lighthouse-intensive coastal towns are often famous for their deadly shipwrecks? Point Arena (Punta Arenas) once boasted a two-mile spit of sand extending far out into the Pacific. It had been washed away by the time the town was founded. Unfortunately the rocky outcroppings the sand concealed had NOT washed away, and the California coast went for some 400 years of regular wrecks before someone finally put a beacon on the cliffs there.

It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt. Decomissioned in the 70s (along with all the other lighthouses) to make way for GPS. The Coast Gurad is restoring it to working order this year as part of a big lighthouse renovation project.

The building itself is kind of shabby, but the view from the nest is cool.

The rocks in question. There's a devil's cauldron cut into the top of the rock near the fog house.


Huge kelp beds line the coast here. You can see some of the locals swirling between the rocks.

Local time: