Pacific NorthWest Sunsets & Sunrises
View allAll Photos Tagged OregonCoast
We spent a few days at the Oregon coast. had mostly wet stormy weather - rain, hail, thunder, even snow. Welcoming in the Spring! The last evening we were there, a downpour hit us as we were returning from the beach, then the sun broke out. Nice end to a great trip!
The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel.
Please do not add me as a contact without commenting or faving my photos. A non commenting contact is not what I desire. I will not follow a 'non commenter' and will delete contacts who don't comment. If you add me as a contact please feel free to make any thoughtful comment you wish. Faving a photo will be considered a comment. Thanks for understanding, sharing thoughts and ideas is what I would like to get out of flickr.
Please do not add me as a contact without commenting or faving my photos. A non commenting contact is not what I desire. I will not follow a 'non commenter' and will delete contacts who don't comment. If you add me as a contact please feel free to make any thoughtful comment you wish. Faving a photo will be considered a comment. Thanks for understanding, sharing thoughts and ideas is what I would like to get out of flickr.
I've come to realize lately from your comments that there is a longing to see more ocean, and I've also realized that I don't photograph the ocean nearly enough! I myself, returning from my recent two-day trip, wanted to see the ocean first, even before going home. I actually feel that longing every day.
My title is taken from a Tears for Fears song called Rivers of Mercy:
If by magic, you mean the ocean
If by tragic, you mean the end
I only came across this song a couple of months ago but was immediately struck to the core by those mysterious opening words. Even without any further context - or maybe especially without any other context, I feel these two lines are quite possibly the most beautiful lyrics ever written! They seem to encapsulate a dimension of truth so deep and profound that it makes me tremble inside. I see reflected my own reactions to the sea as well as questions about the whole of humanity.
After deciding that I wanted to post an ocean photo with this title, I went out with my best lens and quickly discovered what a challenge it is to deliberately photograph "the ocean." The play of light, colors, waves is always changing. I literally said out loud to myself: "I could take a picture of the ocean every day and never get that ONE definitive photo!" And so an idea was born. It's time for a new Flickr project: 52 weeks of ocean photos!
It will be my gift to everyone with the hunger to see the ocean, and it will be my own never-ending pursuit trying to capture the magic.
Deep inhale … aaah … the sea!
That unique aroma intoxicates ocean lovers around the world. Nothing else smells like the sea! One whiff transports you into the realm of dreams, memories, childhood, and a time when your imagination was still big and bendy.
Technically, though, it’s not the salt we’re smelling. Most of the aroma comes from the decomposition of microscopic marine life. In other words, what we’re savoring in our nostrils is the smell of death and decay.
Learning this can be a bit of a shock at first. We are taught to recoil from death and worship only growth, to live in our left brain and fear decline.
But the scent of the sea is a song heard by the right brain. Living and dying … they take turns. The mystery of life is ongoing, like the waves, ever changing, adapting, and staying the same.
Deep inhale … and exhale.
The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel.
This sea lion pup was enjoying himself taking a nap on the warm sand. I took this during my last visit to the Oregon Coast.
Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint is located 10 miles west of Tillamook, Oregon on the north end of the beautiful Three Capes Scenic Route.
"The sleepy village of Cape Meares is tucked along the northern side of the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge and Cape Meares State Park. This small, but impressive park is home to both the shortest lighthouse and the largest Sitka Spruce in Oregon. Its viewpoints overlooking the Pacific Ocean are known as a prime whale-watching spots during migration seasons. This area is also a favorite nesting ground for sea birds, including the Common Murre, Bald Eagle, and Peregrine Falcon. It is home to the “Octopus tree,” once featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and was a Native American meeting place.
This village has spectacular and secluded beaches, spanning many miles, and is a perfect location for beach combing, kite flying, camp fires and storm watching. The beach borders the Bay Ocean Spit, separating Tillamook Bay from the ocean, and offers mile and miles of hiking trails among forested sand dunes."
visittheoregoncoast.com
Thanks for taking a look! Always appreciated.
"... savage capitalism has taught the logic of profit at any cost ..."
Pope Francis, 2013
For 12 years I've been driving this curve on my way to walk by the Rogue River. It was always shaded beneath a sea of tall dark trees.
Now it suddenly looks like this! It's hard to describe how disorienting and visceral this shock is! But maybe I don't have to describe it because most people alive today probably have experience with similar things in one form or another.
Clearcutting is widespread in my area. The sickening sight of it is unavoidable if you live here. Satellite images show checkerboard forests. Logging trucks rumble through town all year long.
You don't have to be a scientist to know how wrong this is, how cruel, how deadly. You can feel it in your body. It's total devastation.
Typically, herbicides are then sprayed to discourage unwanted (unprofitable) plants from growing. Rain will wash some of the chemicals down into streams, like the nearby Rogue River, along with soil and debris. Wildlife is obviously severely disturbed and harmed. Only one type of tree will be planted to make a new tree plantation, not a living diverse forest. The original forest had probably been cut down more than 100 years ago.
Conquerors like to label indigenous people as "savages," but who is the real savage? It's those who disrespect what is sacred. It's those who celebrate death and destruction.
Big Creek Bridge, Oregon. Endless fog on the lens gives a soft effect. Foggy lens is not always a bad thing.
The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel.
Truly, the best moments in life happen when we come in contact with something we can’t comprehend. That’s when “knowledge” steps out of the way and we have a full experience, with the open mind of a child, using all of our brain.
Not even a marine biologist or a crusty old sailor would boast that they understand the ocean. We know more about the landscape of Mars than we do about the seafloor. Earth’s ocean is still wild and resists being captured and categorized into left brain knowledge.
On the other hand, the ocean is knowable to the right brain. I know colors and shapes and rhythms. I know pushing and pulling, rising and falling. I know glittering light and deep darkness. I know the splash and the whistling wind and the thunder of waves. I know life and I know death. It connects everything. The ocean is the soul of this Earth.
The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel.
Ancient Sitka spruce trees buried centuries ago that became unearthed in the late 90s during powerful storms.
Located South of Lincoln City, OR, the Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area is a must see! I missed low tide so was unable to get inside and up close.