Point Conception Lighthouse

One third of the way up the California coast from Mexico, the shoreline curves west and then makes an abrupt 90-degree tum north. Early on, this point of land, this cape, was termed the Cape Horn of the Pacific. One 19th century mariner sailing north in the relative calm of the Santa Barbara Channel, responded to a new seaman who thought the sailing conditions idyllic, "It may be fine now, but when we get north of Conception we'll catch hell!"