My 2015 Vacation, Part 5 of 7

I got up somewhat early on Tuesday, 8/4/2015, but wish it’d been earlier. I hadn’t set an alarm (on purpose) so I can’t complain. This was a vacation after all! I’d only driven about 420 miles the day before, and only had to go about 86 miles today to get to Beachside State Park where I had a reservation. But in the last 2 days I’d already racked up about 1,230 miles of driving.

When I went to bed the night before I’d brushed up on some spots I wanted to see, reading this great book I got from Amazon a few weeks before I left on my trip. I highly recommend it if you’re going to visit Oregon: Photographing Oregon. I got the paperback instead of the Kindle version; I’m still not sold on the electronic books. I appreciate that there’s no tree killing involved in the Kindle books but I really like to be able to hold the book, make notes with a pencil, or easily pull it out in a parking lot and read it in bright, direct sunlight.

Sunset Bay

I got up, brushed my teeth, patted my short hair down, grabbed the camera gear, and headed to Sunset Bay State Park and Shore Acres State Park. I’d really wanted to stay at Sunset Bay State Park, which does take reservations, but they were booked up by the time I had started looking.

The sky was already getting light, and unfortunately overcast, by the time I got to the Pacific coast. This was my first glimpse of the actual ocean and it was nice to finally see it. I went past Sunset Bay to the view point just south-west of Norton Gulch, where you actually see the Pacific (okay, you kind of see the Pacific from Sunset Bay but you’re on the inside of the small bay).

Viewpoint on Cape Arago Highway

I walked down to the bench on the bank, looked at the ocean, leaned over the railing to look down at the rocks below. I’d guess they were maybe 40 feet below but the sign on the railing said “Danger – 400 foot drop off”. I thought you’d have to fall 10 times in order to get the 400 foot experience. Next I headed back up through a trail in the dim light which cut through the salal brush. I took a less travelled path that ended abruptly at a drop off and took some pics with the D610.

At 6:14 AM I was finally taking some Nikon pictures of the Pacific coast! Woo hoo! I made sure I got one snapped with the GPS data embedded, then composed a few different shots. I even switched from the 50mm to the 16-35mm in order to get the full view of the inlet I was above. I’m not sure if this is where it happened but I ended up getting a spot on my D610 sensor that shows up in all of the rest of the shots from my trip. Bummer. I’d recently had the sensor cleaned too, just a few weeks before the trip. Oh well, it’s easy enough to fix in Lightroom CC or Capture NX 2.

Sunset Bay Morning at Low Tide

I took some shots there then headed back to Sunset Bay. I walked down to the water’s edge and was actually on the beach itself! I was hoping for better shots there but the tide was out so it wasn’t good for water shots. The sun did start hitting the sides of the southern cliffs but because of the haze they never really turned golden or as bright as I hoped.

These conditions drove home how nice it is to live near a photogenic location that allows you to visit it frequently to shoot in different lighting conditions whether due to weather or time of year, or time of day. I’d blown off the possible sunset pictures the night before and I was already regretting it. It’s not often that I find myself at Sunset Bay in summer where the sun sets at the mouth of the bay. My laziness cost me a night of sunset shots (sunrise shots on the west coast aren’t as dramatic unless you’ve got a nice scene to the east such as I later found in Waldport).

Charleston Marina

Marina at Charleston, Oregon

I finished up my shots then headed back to Charlston where I took a good number of shots at the marina. My boss at the Employment Department in Coos Bay was also a photographer and it was his photos of the Charleston marina that first impressed me with photography. He had printed shots of boat riggings in black and white – pure black and pure white, no shades of gray – and they just seemed very artistic and impactful to me. I was hoping to get some shots there that I liked. I didn’t get the same thing but I ended up really enjoying the memories of him mixed in with walking on the docks and the smells of the bay.

I also met a guy who was fishing and crabbing on the docks. He was on vacation with his family who was still asleep in the same motel I was at, Captain Jacks. We talked about where he was from, how he came to Charleston once a year, and what he was fishing for (cod). It was a great start to another great day.

I headed back to the motel, showered, checked out, and headed to Coos Bay where I took some better pictures with the iPhone of buildings that I worked in, ran my music studio in, ate at, and lived in. Then I started up the coast towards my campsite.

Dunes at Horsfall Recreation Area

I stopped at Horsfall Recreation Area, part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. When I lived in Coos Bay (okay, I actually lived in North Bend), we used to picnic there a lot. We’d take the kids and grand kids there where they could play on the dunes including dune surfing. I got a few iPhone pics of the dunes but didn’t get out the Nikons there.

I continued up the coast, passing the familiar town names like Glasgow, Hauser, Lakeside, and arrived at Winchester Bay. I stopped there to take some pictures of the mouth of the Umpqua River and Umpqua Lighthouse. This was the first lighthouse of the trip!

Umpqua Lighthouse

Umpqua Lighthouse

This lighthouse is okay but because of the fencing, tourists, parking lot, etc., it’s hard to get a great shot. The lighthouse sits in the middle of flat grounds that are surrounded by less picturesque objects. But it’s still a lighthouse! I’ve never shot a lighthouse picture in Arizona, although Lake Havasu City has more lighthouses than any other city in America at 19 or so, but they are scaled down replicas. Who would believe there are lighthouses in Arizona anyway?

I continued on, and decided to try my luck at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area but there were no elk to be seen. I took a few iPhone pictures there to prove I had visited the place.

Continuing through Reedsport, Gardiner, past Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park (where I used to have a guitar student that lived near by), and detoured to South Jetty County Park south of Florence, on the Siuslaw River.

Siuslaw South Jetty

The jetty was incredibly windy; I’d guess sustained winds of 30 or 40 MPH. On the river side of the jetty it was almost bearable. I struck up a conversation with a couple of women from Eugene who were getting horses out of a trailer to ride on the beach. They were having trouble saddling their horses so I offered to help since I am pretty much an expert horse helper after helping my wife with her horse at least 3 or 4 times. I felt bad that the horses were going to have to try walking in that wind!

South Jetty at Florence, Oregon

I wanted to scout the actual ocean beach side of the jetty and tried walking over the small dunes towards the beach. There really wasn’t a trail so I figured I’d be able to follow my footsteps back; there weren’t any other footprints in the sand. As I crested the first dune and got in the trough, I turned north a bit and headed towards a break in the grass towards the beach. The sand was blowing really good and I had to shade my eyes to keep the sand out. I couldn’t prevent breathing it though and didn’t really enjoy it. I got to the opening in the beach grass and it was windier yet. I took a few pics with the iPhone and decided I wasn’t going to get the Nikons out in this blowing sand.

I turned around to make my way back and my footprints had all but been wiped away by the wind. I ended up making it back (it wasn’t hard to know the direction I needed to go) but it was a different route since my footprints were gone by the time I got to where I needed to head back over the inner dune.

Haceta Head Lighthouse

Haceta Head Lighthouse from Highway 101 Viewpoint

I got back in the Exploder, rescued it from the sand blasting by heading back inland, then travelled on through Florence where I also used to give guitar lessons, past the Sea Lion Caves, and on up to the viewpoint overlooking Haceta Head Lighthouse. It was good and windy there too, as you’d expect, but I snapped some shots with the Nikon D610. The sand wasn’t hitting us there; it’s about 255 feet above sea level and the coast is pretty much just rocks there.

That is one of the iconic Oregon coast pics – the Haceta Head Lighthouse. My shots probably look like thousands of other shots, taken at about 4:00 PM. I really would like to have got it at sunset but I didn’t so they are what they are. Another reason to visit again soon!

I turn my back to the shore at Cape Perpetua Lookout

Cape Perpetua

I continued on, stopping at Cape Perpetua Lookout. At over 800 feet above sea level it is the highest point on the coast to view the coast. I have a fear of heights but it didn’t affect me much there for some reason. Maybe because I thought I’d safely land in the ocean if I fell? I got some Nikon pics there, and had to use the wide angle 16-35mm to get decent shots, but again I wish they’d been at sunset. I had a lot of that on the trip. Even though I had some time for leisurely shooting, you can’t shoot everything at sunset when you’ve only got 3 nights on the coast (and I’d already blown one of them).

I continued on up through Yachats, San Marine, and Tillicum Beach, saw the entrance to Beachside State Recreation Area where my campsite was, and continued past through Waldport, Seal Rock, and went to Newport.

I had got a lot of mosquito bites in Williams, California that first night, and they were really bothering me. I found a Walgreens in Newport, thanks to Jill the GPS, and got some itch relieving cream. While there I took advantage of the McDonalds and posted some pics to Facebook from the iPhone.

Seal Rock



Beach at Seal Rock, iPhone panorama


Heading back, I stopped at Seal Rock to take my sunset pictures. This was a place pointed out in the Photographing Oregon book as a nice place with some rocks that look good at sunset. I did like the spot after figuring out how to get down to the beach. You need to use the “Seal Rock State Wayside” park which has a trail to the beach. I first tried a view point south of there, near Highway 101 and NW Cross street, but there is no easy way to get down on the beach from there. There was, however, another photog who was shooting from the hill at that location.

I got down to the beach and set up the camera. There were other photogs down there too, lined up about the same as me with some nice rock haystack formations between us and the setting sun.

But then, all of a sudden, the sun just set and fizzled. The sky was a bit pinkish-reddish for a few seconds but even that was not much to write home about. Or even to Facebook about.

The other guys left but since I had nothing to lose I stuck around a bit to see if there might suddenly be a nice color burst. Eventually it just got dark and the shots were unimpressive. I guess they’re okay just from the standpoint that I was taking a picture of the coast which is certainly much different than an Arizona desert, but they weren’t going to be published in Outdoor Photographer magazine! Then I noticed I could barely make out where the trail might be to get back up to the park. I walked towards the cliff and did find the trail, using the very small penlight I had with me I avoided falling off the rocks.



Sunset at Seal Rock Beach, Oregon



Days End

I headed back to my campsite, checked in with the park ranger who didn’t want to talk much because he really needed a bathroom break (as we finished I think he’d closed the window and left the little shack for the bathroom before I got back in the Exploder). I found my  site, backed my Exploder into the parking in the dark which isn’t easy for my old eyes – I had to keep getting out of the vehicle to make sure I wasn’t backing into a tree or boulder – re-arranged a few things in the back of the Exploder, then layed down and to go to sleep at about 10 PM. I’d covered the 86 miles plus in about 16 hours, filling the time with picture taking on some beautiful Oregon coast. I slept with a smile on my face.

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My 2015 Vacation, Part 4 of 7

I woke up fairly early, around 6:00 AM and really felt quite rested. I just love my Exploder! I’d driven about 810 miles the day before and then slept in her quite soundly! I re-arranged some items then punched in a search for a McDonalds in the GPS and headed about a mile to get a #10 with a large coffee (2 breakfast burritos and a hash brown – my usual when I’m out). I sat in the parking lot and posted my status to Facebook at 6:36 AM, which includes their location and address. It gives them advertising, I suppose, but I have really grown fond of the free WiFi at McDonalds.



I-5 northbound near mile 652

I often go to McDonalds just because I know I can use their WiFi. I go through the drive through then sit in the parking lot as close to the building as I can get (so the signal is as strong as possible) and then uploaded some pics. I did run across one McDonalds somewhere that didn’t have WiFi or it wasn’t working (I don’t remember where exactly, perhaps Seaside, Oregon). On the other hand, they seem to have my fast food breakfast of choice. The 2 burritos usually last me until late in the day. Sometimes I’ll also grab a large orange juice. I guess that’s enough about my poor eating habits for now…



TA Truck Stop, I-5 at exit 673

I headed on up Interstate 5 towards Redding. I fueled up at the TA truck stop at about 8:00 AM. This was the place I’d hoped to sleep at the previous night. It looked like it would have been fine. The truck parking lot is in back of the building and fairly secluded. There were a few other cars in there. I also got myself some more jerky and ice for my cooler and then headed into Redding. I’ve been in Redding a few times before, mainly to buy gas and I may have stayed in a motel there (it was either there or Red Bluff). But I hadn’t seen as much of the downtown area as I did this time. I had to snap a picture or two on the iPhone.



Redding

I was hoping to take highway 299 from Redding to the California coast near Eureka. Unfortunately there were a lot of fires burning in that area and the highway was closed. Jill (my GPS) guided me back to the freeway over a different route so I got to see even more of Redding. I like it there. It’s nice and woodsy, with winding streets instead of straight streets that stretch for miles on a desert floor. I think this was when I started wondering about moving back to the northwest.



I headed on up I-5, and was shocked when I saw the water level in Shasta Lake. I knew it was down and had seen pictures of it but it’s quite different to see in person how little water is in there. There were boat ramps that end half way down the bank without touching the water at all. I didn’t see one boat on the lake. It used to be like Lake Powell or Lake Pleasant in the Phoenix area are still. Very active for water sports and fishing.

One thing new for me on this trip, using my GPS, was that I got notices of bodies of water and places from interest in real time as I was driving. I decided to take exit 702 to see Antlers Campground (a USDA Forest Service campground) (http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/stnf/recreation/ohv/recarea/?recid=6421&actid=29) and perhaps get a picture of the lake at that point. This is just south of Lakehead-Lakeshore, CA.

Explorer goes exploring

I found a utility road for power lines and drove down it, pretending I had a 4 wheel drive. It wasn’t too bad but the road was pretty uneven in a few places and the Exploder was at a fun angle or two! I got out to scope out the area to see if I wanted to FINALLY get out a Nikon camera. I walked around and ended up shooting a good number of pictures on the iPhone, around 60 in fact. Again, I decided not to bother with the Nikons.

Wild Horses, Sacramento Arm of Shasta Lake

The lower number of shots made with the Nikons was a surprise to me. I read a lot of Thom Hogan (http://bythom.com/) and that’s one thing he harps on a lot – that smaller cameras are just easier and more convenient. After this trip I believe him more. I still felt, and feel, that when I want a picture I can print big or do post processing on, I need to use a DSLR. But for mid-day shots that are basically snap shots and recording an event, the cell phone works fine. I ended up shooting 1,699 images and videos on the iPhone and there may be a dozen or so that I wish I’d taken on my Nikon. Note that I did also take another 1,344 pictures on the Nikons which I considered to be of better quality (at least that was the intent).

Bear scat

One of the cool things about the iPhone is that I felt pretty comfortable using it while driving. I wouldn’t think of using one of my Nikons in the same way. And I enjoyed having the iPhone in a restaurant or store or other building. I don’t feel the same way about the Nikon. I felt like it was more acceptable to look like a simple tourist using an iPhone that to try to drag a Nikon and tripod around. I really like how the two systems complement each other. And how else can I as easily take a selfie of my with my Nikon?

I found some wild horses (at least I assume they were wild) at the bottom of the cliff that the utility road ends at. They were roaming and grazing where there used to be a lake. I found some bear scat on the trail. I thought it was bear and took a picture of it that was later confirmed to be bear by some park rangers in Oregon. Another use for the iPhone!

I got back in the Exploder and continued my trek north. I didn’t get very far before I noticed that Jill the GPS was showing me there is a river running alongside of I-5. All of those trips in the past and I’d never known about the Sacramento River that I-5 follows from Lakeshore-Lakehead about 50 miles to about Dunsmuir. I couldn’t ignore it so I pulled off the freeway at exit 718 and drove down to the Sims Flat Campground (a USDA Forest Service campground).



Sacramento River at
Sims Flat Campground

This was a very pretty river and a very peaceful spot. I did get out my Nikon D3200 here, and the tripod. The only drawback was that it was the middle of the day (about 11:00 AM) and it wasn’t really that great for shooting. I got some pics that are representative of what I saw.

I met a Viet Nam vet and his grandson who were riding their mountain bikes around. He’d been going there since the 1960’s. He had relatives that owned property around the area; he was RVing from San Diego. I talked to him for close to an hour about the area, San Diego, the drive in California, the USS Missouri (he had a relative on there, I followed it out of the northern Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War), the state of the military, and how much he thought I should join the VFW. Eventually we parted but I think we could have talked well into the evening!

The encounter is another reason I love taking any of my photographic excursions. Rarely do I meet people who want to talk about cameras but I often meet other travelers that are willing, perhaps wanting, to also meet someone new and share some time together. It’s really nice to get to know someone even briefly when you’re surrounded by some beautiful scenery. I think the scenery helps put you in a good mood, and makes you more receptive to conversation with strangers when you’re both experiencing the beauty together.

Black Butte near Mt. Shasta

I had really wanted to get some pictures of Mt. Shasta on the trip but due to the fires you couldn’t really see it from the highway at all! The veteran showed me one of the bridges at the campground that actually looks right up at Mt. Shasta, and told me it is a very popular shot. I didn’t get to take it due to the smoke (I could barely make out the mountain at all) but here’s a link to someone else’s shot so you can see what it looks like from the camp ground:(https://hikemtshasta.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/trinity-divide-sacramento-river-feb2013-046-copy-custom.jpg).



A Knight truck on I-5 north of Grants Pass, Oregon

I eventually saddled up again, and crossed in to Oregon at about 12:51 PM. I exited I-5 in Green, OR at exit 119, a bit south of Roseburg, and fueled up and did some reconnoitering. I decided to continue along highway 42 to Coos Bay or Charleston and that I would begin my Oregon coast travels there. I figured I’d be able to find a motel or campground there.

I had driven that road only once before, when I lived in Coos Bay and had to go to a meeting in Roseburg. Roseburg is a weird place to get to from Coos Bay – there are two main routes but either one causes you to backtrack north or south. But I’d done the northern route a lot so decided to stick with the southern road through Winston and Coquille.

Highway 42

It doesn’t take long after you get off the freeway to start seeing western Oregon as it typically presents itself. Sparse communities that are primarily built on the logging industry, situated in forests that alternate between lush and harvested. I wish I was more poetic because I don’t feel I’m painting a sufficient picture. It’s just the kind of area where you are immediately faced with the reality that not everything in the world is concrete and steel and asphalt and it even seems like the people, too, are not made of concrete and steel but instead of flesh and bone and compassion and patience and joy. But then that’s how it is in the northwest.



Downtown Coos Bay, OR

Eventually I made my way through Coos Bay at about 4:46 PM, and then on in to Charleston, Oregon which is about 10 miles further towards the coast, through Empire. I took pictures with the iPhone as I went through Coos Bay of the street that I used to work on, of the building I used to give guitar lessons in, and the downtown intersections in general. I took some pictures of the bay itself (the name is, you guessed it, “Coos” bay). However not many of these turned out since I still didn't know how to cause the phone to focus. I think it was focusing on some of the dead Oregon bugs that were decorating my windshield by this point.




Capt. Jacks Motel, Charleston, OR

I had never stayed in Charleston before so I had Jill the GPS look for a motel and she guided me to Captain Jacks Motel. How could you go wrong with a name like that in the fishing town of Charleston? As it turned out they had one room left and I took it. The pointed me to a nearby place to get some seafood, within walking distance. I unloaded some of the Exploder and set my sights on the Portside Restaurant. I walked over, breathing deeply the sea smells, and ordered a huge seafood platter. It was enough for 2 or 3 people!

Seafood Platter at Portside Rest.

It was really good but I ended up eating maybe a third of it. I had even ordered rice instead of the huge, loaded baked potato! I really wish they'd had a smaller platter. I hate wasting meat, knowing those animals gave up their lives for a human and then the human didn't even eat them.

I had to do it - I took pictures of the meal and posted them to Facebook! My wife was very jealous and was wishing she was there too (and I wished she was as well). I also took some pics out of the restaurant window to post, showing a different landscape than I typically post from Arizona.

Bed selfie with my Kindle

I ended up taking a few more iPhone pics but, feeling a bit tired, I (regretfully) blew off going to Sunset Bay for a sunset picture shoot and instead warmed my belly a bit more with some Johnny Walker and went to bed at about 8:30 PM. Yeah, just like a senior citizen, but I was just thrilled and relaxed to be at the Oregon coast and that night I just didn’t care about anything else!


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