Welcome to Oregon...."Again": Day 3: From Rocks to Waterfalls

I continued south towards Natural Bridges in the morning. By the time I arrived, the fog was so dense I could barely see the natural rock bridge (or arch) from the viewpoint. There was one particular vantage point I was looking for based on picture I had seen online, so I hiked down a couple different trails. I never found the vantage point, but it was hard to tell where it might be because of the fog. Even if I had found it, it’s unlikely I would have gotten the shot I wanted (plus, it would be better at sunset). Anyway, I got some interesting shots of the huge moss-covered trees (Western Red Cedars?) in the fog.

If you look closely, you can see the natural bridge (arch) in the dense fog

I headed to Secret Beach, which was just a few miles north. Unfortunately, the conditions were essentially the same, and I wasn’t sure exactly where the trail was. I had the details in Google MyMaps, but I didn’t have cell service so couldn’t access the map. So now I had crucial decision to make. Do I wait a little to see if the conditions would improve (they likely wouldn’t), do I kill time and wait for sunset (it would probably still be foggy based on previous days’ experience, and I had nothing else to do), or do I head back north to catch something else? Regrettably, I decided on the last option. But first I went into Brookings, Oregon several miles south to refuel and upload my Day 2 blog post at a McDonalds (they have free WiFi*).

The sun coming up through the fog at Pistol River Rec Area

I love the ripples in the sand that receding tide creates

I stood on a small rock as the tide was coming in to get the "perfect" set ripples in the water

I don't know if someone put these rocks here or if the waves carried them in. Either way, it made for a nice composition!


Amazing cool end of a driftwood log

I decided that my next stop would be a waterfall, Sweet Creek Falls. This would take me inland and away from the rocks of the Oregon coast (and the persistent fog), which would be a good change of pace. It was a long drive to the waterfall, but since I had plenty of time, I stopped at various locations to shoot. Boy, am I glad I did…some of these images may be my best so far (IMHO), especially those at The Pistol River Recreation Area. This once again proves that when doing landscape photograph it’s important to be flexible.

Look how clear the water is!

Steps on the trail

After grabbing a bunch of long exposure photos, I headed back to the parking area. There may have been more falls, but it was starting the get late. There were several potential camp sites “nearby”, but all them took at least 30 minutes to get there, a one over an hour! As before, there’d be no guarantee there would be available spots, so I decided to try an unlikely spot: the Three Rivers Casino in Florence (this casino supposedly allowed RVs to park there overnight for free). There were already a bunch of RVs, trailers and campervans when I arrived, but there were spaces available. There were no signs that said anything about fees, so I parked the van. Not very scenic, but what the heck...it was level ground (pavement), safe (it was very well lit, in fact), and best of all free!

So all in all, a pretty good day even though I didn’t get some images on my “priority list”.

*Despite this, I will have to reduce the size of the files going forward since it took WAY too long to upload the images (even then it is painfully slow). This could affect the quality of the images you may see, so my apologies if that’s the case. Oh, and as a reminder, if you click on the image in the blog, you will see a bigger image, depending on what type of device you are using.

A man walking his dog along the highway carrying a paddle and a fishing pole. I passed the two a mile or so back and said "Good morning" as they walked by. I took off a few minutes later, but I never saw them again, despite there being no obvious trail or road off the highway. I wonder where they went?