Kellen and I were camping at the Oregon coast the second weekend in May. The weather was pretty typical, and that means more rain and cold than I like. But it’s Kellen’s favourite weather, so their pleasure at the situation helped smooth my lament for the sun.
Our campground was south of Yachats and north of Florence. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, we camped at about the halfway point between the north and south borders, between the states of Washington and California. We were fully in Oregon!
On different sea and weather conditions, this is a potentially dangerous and raucous place, but it wasn’t too bad when we visited in May. A nearby chasm provided a better example of what we call a “churn” here on the coast. Please click through the slideshow below, and you’ll know exactly what happens here.
We clambered around on rocks and explored tidepools and churns and trails.
We watched another churn made more scenic by an attractive bridge.
The blowholes are especially fun side effects of ocean waves. Like the churns, their drama results from waves crashing onto the shore. If you wait long enough, like those photographers above, you can see a great plume of sea water spray into the sky.
Kellen and I saw so much wildlife. I did get some good photos, but know that we missed a lot of photos, too, of even more wildlife. Look below at this male Surf Scoter. What an amazing duck!
Above I feature sea lions, seagulls, crows, cormorants, and a white-crowned sparrow. All of these photos, plus the one below, were taken at a single overlook point beside the highway.
When the man above got down off the wall, I exclaimed, “Thank you for not dying!” (You can’t really tell from the photo, but it’s about a 100 foot (30 m) drop.) He had to ask a few times to understand my English, then when he understood, laughed, and said, “Of course!” Then he happily jumped up onto the wall again in a new place, wobbled a little, and took more photos. My stomach was falling off the wall in empathy for him. A misplaced emotion I guess. :o)
Farther south along the coast, in the Florence area, are sand dunes. We didn’t go all the way south, into the real heart of the dunes. We didn’t go into the place where Frank Herbert was inspired to write the Dune book series about the desert planet called Arrakis. But we did find some beautiful sand dunes, and sat and watch the sun go down for a while.
We sat on the dunes until the showers built up once more, and began to douse us. We ran for the car, and went back to camp and packed up all our stuff in rain. Needless to say, it all remained sopping wet until I unpacked it a couple days later to dry out in the sun.
Conscious Engagement 