Pacific Crest Trail

On a long weekend trip to Eugene with Cyndi we had the good fortune and pleasure of camping in the mountains.  The first morning we woke up and walked on a Forest Service road that was well off the beaten path.  We were rewarded with views of an incredible trillium and a Life Bird, the Hermit Warbler.

Trillium ovatum

Flowering Currant

Ribes sanguineum

Hermit Warbler

Setophaga occidentalis

On the second morning, we awoke next to the Pacific Crest Trail.  Cyndi on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The lichens were hanging densely off every available branch.

We saw this beautiful butterfly with deeply serrated wing shapes.  It is a Hoary Comma butterfly, Polygonia gracilis.  It is called by a few different names over its range.  Some call it a Hoary Angelwing.  This is one of the few North American butterflies that hibernate during the winter and wake up in the spring to feed and lay eggs.

We photographed a number of pollinators.  This interesting fly with a long proboscis was probing the Manzanita.

Crater Lake ... and the trip home

It was with mixed feelings that we left the coast and headed inland once again. The beauty of the sea had been tempered by fog and wind. But, as soon as we got a few thousand yards from the coast, the weather was summertime hot again in an instant!

Seeing the big trees in the Coast Range is always a joy, though. We were determined to get to our next stop, Cyndi's brother's home in Prospect, before nightfall. Nonetheless, we still made time for a couple of quick stops. We took a very short hike in the big trees, up a verdant creek, to see Oregon's highest waterfall.

It was already turning darker, and the mosquitoes kept us moving toward our goal.

Cyndi's brother works at Crater Lake National Park, and the morning after our arrival he took us to an overlook near the park lodge. I'd never seen this particular vantage before, and the deep blue of the water was stunning!

Far below my perch on the rim, the steep sides of this volcanic crater plunged quickly out of sight into the bottomless blue depths.

Inside the lodge, I was fascinated by this stairway and wall which showcased bark as the facing material, rather than peeled logs or sawn beams. The grand public spaces of our National Park Lodges are always worth investigating.

Next, for the afternoon's adventure, we set out to see a place in the park I had never seen before, called The Needles. Here they are on the far side of a canyon.

Seen closer, they are eroded spires of volcanic ash and tuff, fused into fantastical shapes.

The interpretive sign explained that these were the fumarole vents long ago, and the hot gasses and mineral-rich steam fused them solid.

As the surrounding material eroded away, only the hardened core remains standing today.

On our way out of the park, we left via the South Entrance, and headed across the vast sagebrush desert, homeward.


We went across the Upper Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

After a long day of driving, we stopped at sunset and pitched our tent in the sagebrush.

As the curtain of darkness dropped, we ate some dinner and fell asleep to the sound of coyotes. It would be a short drive home in the morning after a good night's sleep under a clear, starry sky.

Bandon and environs

Bandon, Oregon.

It has been a while since I've made time to share more of my Oregon vacation photos. It has been busy at work, and I've relished every occasion to get out and about, so will have more to share on that account as well. But, for now, to return to the story where I left off ...

The campground Cyndi and I visited was near the town of Bandon, and this lighthouse guards the entrance to the bay and harbor.

The Pelicans were feeding, and the Heerman's Gulls were attempting to steal fish from the Pelicans. The Pelicans would fly until they spotted a fish, then plummet into the water, at the last minute folding back their wings and piercing the water like a huge dart.

It was a blustery day, and there were not many people at the beach today!

I can't begin to describe the brisk wind. It picked up spindrift from the ocean and blew it ashore. I was soon shivering before the power of the sea breeze, and retreated to the car to warm up and clean my camera lens.

Even the Heerman's Gulls (the darker ones with red bills) and Western Gulls were hunkered down in the parking lot, all facing into the wind.

Sometimes the fog rolled in, other times the sun broke through. We drove up the coast and explored the many beaches and headlands.

The Beach Pea enjoys the sandy environment doused by salt spray.

We visited Bandon on three occasions and dined there twice.

To escape the chill wind, we drove around behind the dunes to a protected lagoon where this Snowy Egret was watching for fish.

A Raven harassed one of the many Turkey Vultures we saw, hurrying it out of the Raven's territory. Turkey Vultures were just about the most numerous bird we saw ... well, I guess they were easier to count than the myriad gulls.

Wherever the coast provided steep cliffs the Pigeon Guillemot had nesting areas and they clung to the steep faces with their bright red feet.

Oregon vacation: Shore Acres

Cyndi, Jennifer and I all went together to Shore Acres. It's an arboretum and botanical garden set on a high cliff above one of the most spectacular shorelines I've ever witnessed. (Not as nice as the Atlantic Ocean, where I grew up, of course ... but quite good for the Pacific.) Here is a pond at the arboretum ... just on the far side is a wonderful view of the ocean!

This Black Phoebe was foraging for insects.

Here's the view of a sandy beach from high on the rocky headland. It looks like there may be a cave on the south side.

We walked down to the sandy beach. The sedimentary geology was uplifted at a 45-degree angle.

Here's a close view of that rock jutting into the sea at such an angle.

It almost seemed like there was a basalt layer in there, as I was reminded of the pillow lava from the edge of the sea in Hawaii.

The waves were crashing in, creating that soothing rhythmic heartbeat, and the warm sun on a 70-degree day was a delightful relief from the hot summer back home in Idaho.

My sister Jennifer explored the cave and proclaimed it went further into the darkness than the eye could see.

OK, this one is just a nice portrait of my best sister ever. (Thanks for driving over to the ocean to meet us and help celebrate my birthday, Jennifer!)

At sunset, after Jennifer headed homeward to her work obligations, Cyndi and I returned to the overlook and walked along the trail on the headlands. Do you see the small figures, two people on the next promontory? It is difficult to convey the scale of this scene, but the people help.

At low tide the kelp were exposed. Cyndi saw some Black Oystercatchers, but I didn't get a photo this time.

The warm evening light highlighted the strange geology.

The park closes just after sunset, and here it is, the great ball of the sun sinking into the offshore fog.

Oregon vacation: Sunset Bay State Park

Upon arrival at the coast we stopped to view the sand dunes and beach grasses. We did not stay long as we had plans to meet my sister at our campground, but it was neat to see these coastal dunes.

When we arrived at Sunset Bay State Park, where we would camp, no birds seemed more prevalent than the Crows! Here's a juvenile begging for food, perhaps from a sibling.

Certainly more melodious was the sweet, flutelike, breathy "freelia, freelia, freelia" of the ubiquitous Hermit Thrush.

There was a feeder at the campground's nature center, and all sorts of birds came to it in the morning. We spent many hours just enjoying the colorful show. The golden yellow of the American Goldfinch, the blood-red cap of the Cassin's Finch, the yellow and orange of the parrotlike Crossbills, and the bright blue Steller's Jay all made a rainbow of color in the morning light.

Our success at seeing and photographing hummingbirds continued for the year, with these beautiful Rufous Hummingbirds. (As an aside, while I'm typing this blog entry, three Black-chinned Hummingbirds are bickering over the hummingbird feeder outside my window!) We spent a lot of time trying to study the structure of the second tail feather to see if maybe one of these birds was the nearly-identical Allen's Hummingbird. For the record, we found that examining the tiny tail feathers of a hummingbird to be problematic at best.

The coastal geology was fascinating and beautiful. Sedimentary layers of different colors had been eroded by the waves.

This was just one of many canonball-sized orbs appearing out of the sandstone.

Perhaps some ancient civilization left these runes to be deciphered? I could not glean their message.

This was a bit easier to figure out ... fossils! In the relatively recent past, sea creatures left their imprint in this clay which has now turned to stone.

While fossils are cool, the marine mammals hauled out on this offshore rock were cooler! There was quite a mix of sea creatures out there. Though the Steller's Sea Lions were large, the Elephant Seals loomed over all others in the pack. I suppose you'll be wanting to click on this photo to get a better look.

To be continued ...