Like all special places, this section of beach is always in flux, its beauty ever changing and never quite capable of being captured fully in a photo. I see this beach at sunrise and sunset, at high tide and low- and everything in between, and through every season of the year. I collect trash for my work here and trash for the trash, I find artifacts for collections and intriguing bits of wood too good not to bring home. My son surfs here, we swim and walk and play. In other words, I know this beach well. But every now and then, X street beach offers a truly remarkable sight that outpaces all the other many moments of breathtaking wonder. This photo captures one such instance.

The beach’s regulars who act as stewards, including my family, create structures from the endless mounds of stones that pile particularly high in one area. My son will spend hours building stone walls and huts adjacent to other fortifications decorated with painted rocks, old Adirondack chairs, fire pits, stone pillars, and a perfectly symmetrical labyrinth as seen below coated by marshmallow snow, shimmering in the morning sun. A spectacular sight.