Falling James
There are more than 70 miles of coastline in L.A. County, much of it facing west and offering numerous vantage points to watch the sun slip into the Pacific. Seeing the ever-changing light show of vibrant colors — smog-infused oranges and lurid hot pinks fading into an ephemeral shimmer of purplish blue over a gray-black ocean — is even grander and more powerfully elemental when you're standing on a cliff above it all. Seriously dramatic cliffside views extend from Palos Verdes to Santa Monica and aptly named Pacific Palisades, but Point Fermin Park in San Pedro is in an especially enchanting location. Cabrillo Beach's tide pools and the graffiti-enshrined landslide ruins of Sunken City lie just around the southern bend, while to the north unfolds a series of beautiful coves ringed by dangerously steep cliffs that give way to only the barest strip of rocky beach. When the sun goes down, it feels like the current, the strong wind, the clouds and the kaleidoscope of colors churned up by the sun are all converging at once.
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