Oregon Coast...Fabulous!

Behind on the blog...I've been socializing with friends.  I'm actually up in Victoria right now, but this post will just concern the Oregon coast.  Spent five nights there...could have stayed a month or more.  The driftwood here at Gold Beach blends in with the sand and sky.

Believe this is called Conflict Rock, in Port Orford.  In 1851 a group of white settlers found a band of unfriendly Indians, and had to retreat to this rock for several days until reinforcements arrived...the rock is on the beach, partly in the ocean, with steep, difficult access, thus defendable.  Notice the golden eagle on the tree at far right.

Face Rock, in Bandon.  The face is on the right, looking upward.

Clouds, grass, and dunes, near Florence.

The windswept coast.  There are barchan dunes just inland from the sea.  Go over the Sahara Desert on Google Earth and you'll see identically shaped dunes.  Blow the pic up for better resolution.

Heceta Head lighthouse.

Surf spraying up through a blowhole at Yachats.  Yachats is a particularly beautiful town about halfway along the coast between Oregon and Washington.  It is situated on an especially scenic stretch of shoreline that I am trying to visit more.  When I lived in Portland, I usually didn't come this far south, and now that I live in California, I normally don't get this far north.  But either way Yachats is worth the extra drive.

Sunset from my motel in Yachats. 

There is a fine coastal trail that runs right by my Yachats motel, the Fireside.  It's a pleasant spot for a morning stroll when the sun tries to disperse the fog. 

Vivid light caused by sun and fog just north of Neskowin.

The coast stretches far to the north from Cape Lookout.

Yes, the Lizards are on the trip!  Here they are marveling at the Octopus Tree, near Cape Meares.

Oswald West State Park is a fine place, enjoyed by hikers, surfers, campers, and picnickers.  This is a sea cave at the far north end of Short Sand Beach.

It rained over an inch over the two days before I tried to hike to Cape Falcon.  The Russian Front trail was much in evidence.

The Magical Wild Shore

There are vast numbers of magical spots all over, but it is really hard to beat the Pacific coast in far Northern California and far Southern Oregon.  Here lies a combination of beauty, peace, grandeur, and mystery that is very rare indeed.  The weather adds to the magic.  The region can appear benign, under bright sunshine, almost Mediterranean.  But more often it's shrouded in fog and mist, or battered by winter storms.  This is the sandspit between the sea and a lagoon in Humboldt county.  Every few decades a massive storm...or perhaps a tsunami...brings the ocean completely over the spit. 

Trees rise into the mist above the cliffs of Humboldt.

The coast is home to several herds of Roosevelt elk, who nonchalantly hang out wherever they feel like hanging out.

The Lizards are most at home in the desert, but they too appreciate the fecundity of a nurse log in the redwoods.

The big kahuna redwoods soar to the sky in Redwood National Park.

This nurse log hosts an entire ecosystem...trees, ferns, sorrel, critters.  It fell on a hillside and is suspended above the ground for most of its length.  After a few centuries it will collapse, adding nutrients to the soil below.

When I'm on the far northern CA coast I usually stay in Trinidad.  It's a tidy little coastal village, nestled in the redwoods and Sitka spruce, with all the modcons and a cool harbor.  Fog and mist is prevalent.

There's a little fishing fleet in Trinidad.  The buoy in the background adds a pleasant clang every few seconds.

An L bridge over Brown Creek, in Redwood National Park. 

Don't know that I'd ever seen a tree with these markings.  Blow the pic up and you'll see a couple of notches near the bottom, plus an axe scar almost midway up the pic, mostly grown over.  Lumberjacks had started felling this tree.  They wedged planks in the notches, so they could chop the tree up at the axe scar line...much less wood to cut through than if you started at ground level.  But they had taken only a few strokes of the axe...when they quit, and left the tree alone thereafter.  There's a story behind this tree.  Probably all the folks who knew it have passed on.

The US 101 bridge over the Klamath River has golden bears at each end, on each side.  They're quite well formed.

Biomass!  I went for a stroll in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park this afternoon...had not hiked this particular trail before.  Not only were the redwoods tall, but they were fat...massive!  This means they are very old.  Like people, redwoods grow tall first, when they are relatively young, then fill out in middle and old age.  Some of the trees here seemed as massive as giant sequoias.

Da Big Kahuna redwood reaches for the sky, surrounded by his peers.

Redwood roots, like those of the giant sequoia, only extend a few feet below ground level...maybe 10 at the most.  However, redwood roots entwine with those of their neighbors, increasing stability.  But a robust winter storm can topple them.  After awhile the roots become their own ecosystem, nurturing new growth.

Now I'm on the southern Oregon coast, on a crystal 65 degree day.  Ahhh!  Perfection.

Sitka spruce predominate along the immediate coast from far northern California up to, well, Sitka...and probably farther north in Alaska.  Though smaller than redwoods, they are still massive trees and have dense, intricate branch systems.

I'm staying at the Gold Beach Resort...have been here several times before.  It's a short stroll to the sand from my oceanfront room.  The northern beaches have masses of driftwood, lying between the foreshore grasses and the water.

Coastal Ramblings

A couple weeks ago I went on a whale watching cruise out of Monterey with my friends Suzanne and Jeff.  It was neat to get out on the water.  A fishing boat was also putting out to sea.

We saw a lot of whales on the cruise, but it is hard to photograph them. My reaction times were too slow.  I did get this pic of a humpback going into a deep dive.

Now I'm up in far Northern California.  This is the Founders Tree in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  This is where the big kahuna redwoods live!  This tree is 346 feet tall.

Another massive redwood near the Founders Tree.  Strolling the groves is, well, like being in a natural heaven.  It's magical and majestic.  I feel tranquility and awe.  It was surprisingly warm on this day....around 78 here, and 86 in the groves near Miranda.  About as hot as I've ever seen it in the big redwoods.

At one time, the Dyerville Giant was measured at 362 feet in height.  It was arguably the tallest tree on the planet.  Then, on March 24, 1991, during the lone wet month in a winter of drought, a big storm toppled it.  It lies close to the Founders Tree, just beginning its career as a nurse log.  For the next five centuries or so, the fallen giant will nurture growth of ferns and trees on its trunk, and slowly contribute nutrients to the soil as it decays.