By Dan Krieger -- January provides us with some of the clearest views of the California coast if it isn’t raining. Some of these views appear almost as they were when first sighted by Spanish explorers 400 years ago.One of my favorites is Punta Año Nuevo, literally “New Year’s Point,” 55 miles south of the Golden Gate.This low-lying, rugged, rocky outcropping into the Pacific was named by Fray Antonio de la Ascension, of the Discalced Order of Carmelites, on Jan. 1, 1603. Father Antonio was a noted cosmographer, or mapmaker, assigned to the Vizcaíno expedition.

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