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An Oregon Travel Tale (Part 3)

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We are now back and I am finally getting around to posting the last installment of our trip out to the Oregon coast. We drove back down to Bandon and hoped for a sunset which never happened as the fog rolled in again to seal it’s fate. What a bummer because it was really looking up. But the next morning the fog was minimal and the rock sentinels were sprouting everywhere. I headed down to the beach to make some more images and what I found was awesome.

 

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The image below is of the back side of this stump. It looks like part of a whale.

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This really cool stump was anchored in place below some 30 ft tall volcanic rock spires. It had initials carved into it probably from eons ago. The ocean has been weathering it for a very long time.

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These giant edifices were inspiring to photograph and I hope I get another chance to shoot them in light that has more color to it.

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After the light started to rise in the sky it was time to leave and head north again. We stopped along the way to take in the view that we had not seen on the way down. It was truly magnificent. We wanted to stop and see the Heceta Head Light up close but the rest of the family wanted to keep going. So I made do with images of it from far away at the Sea Lion Caves.

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This image was taken 200 ft below the surface but there were no sea lions on the rocks.

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We could however see the Heceta Head Light from the top of these stairs.

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Then again from 200 ft up near the Sea Lion Gift shop.

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Then as we moved up the coast we saw some incredible scenery from way high up on the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

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We headed for Cannon Beach and made it in time for dinner and sunset which was truly uninspiring. But I managed a good shot out of it anyway. The shot below is on the more un-photographed side of Haystack Rock. It was nice of this couple to walk by and make the shot for me.

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The next morning did not give us much in the way of sunrise type shots so off we went on our journey north. We ran into a familiar site along the way – a traffic jam on Rt. 20 headed toward Boston. Who would have thought. Traffic never changes. Only 3,365 miles to go.

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Well that’s it for this years blog post on our annual trip to Oregon. Next year it might be Yosemite, who knows.

An Oregon Travel Tale (Part 2)

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The light was beautiful but as it got higher the sky it was time to start our tour of lighthouses in the horrible high sun. This part of the coast is gorgeous but the driving between locations is long. So back to the podcasts on our sons’ phones with hands on the wheel and back and forth discussions between two old folks and their close to thirty something sons. Heated discussions at times! But interesting never the less.


I have always wanted to see the entrance to the Coquille River. It has jettys on either side which are guarded by a lighthouse. If any of you know the crazy entrance to Newburyport in Massachusetts then you know exactly what I mean. It’s nuts! So much so that the Coast Guard practices going out of the mouth and over the huge waves with their forty footers. We watched one go out for a practice run it was crazy. The waves were huge. The other impressive thing about this location was the amount of driftwood everywhere. 


The beach on the right side was packed with driftwood. Truly amazing. We spent lots of time wandering on the beach and watching the huge waves crashing on the jetty and beach. Then we got back in the car for more driving and listening. More driving – ugh! The next stop was the  Cape Arago Lighthouse which is privately owned by Native American’s so it can only be photographed from far away. Kind of boring looking anyway.


After seeing this scene along the way we travelled up to the Umpqua River light which was beautiful but was not much of a photo in the mid day light. I can’t remember if I shot a photo of it or not. If I find one I’ll slide it into this post. They had a museum there and a great view of the entrance to the river. Then it was back on the road again. More to come in the next segment.

An Oregon Coast Travel Tale (Part 1)

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Ok, so what do you do when you travel six hours on a flight pull into the hotel exhausted and wake up the next morning to gray skies and fog? You pray it gets better! That being said praying kind of worked. 

Let me explain. We left our hotel with gray skies and headed for the fog enshrouded coast not knowing if the fog would hold all day – it did. What a disappointment. Our trip down route 101 along the coast was another six hours of not seeing much. The beautiful scenery along 101 was invisible to us as we sped by listening to pod casts our sons’ had downloaded on their phones.

We stopped every once in a while to make a shot or two of the fog covered shore or islands peering through the mist. We did not bother to stop at Cannon Beach as it was covered in fog. When we arrived at our destination on Bandon Beach on the south shore just below Coos Bay we were met with an overlook of incredible beauty but covered by fog. 

We decided to put long pants and hiking shoes on to climb down the massive set of stairs to the beach. We were met with incredible amounts of huge driftwood – wow, a B&W photographers dream.  The driftwood and fog made for some great images.


Plus there was no one on the beach, yay! I had a great time poking around the giant stumps. The fog started to clear a little as sunset approached but we only got a sliver of color. The next morning I was up early hoping for some nice light and I was not disappointed. 


The shot above is not my best one. I have three frames with the flock of geese in it but the thumb nails on my iPad are so small on import I could not tell which one I wanted. 


Walking around in the early morning light on the beach and on the bluff was great, the scenery was outstanding.


As the light rose and made it over the cliff face it was almost like alpen glow the way it just lit the top portions of these giant edifices. I met some nice photogs along the way who were participating in workshops. This the end of part one. More to come on a day of travel to shoot lighthouses in horrible light and another morning among the giant rocks!