Day: July 28, 2018

Friday I crossed into Oregon from California and drove up the first 30 miles of the coast.  The Oregon coast is 343 miles long and, by law, is all open free to the public.  If what I saw in the first 30 miles is any indication, I think I’m really going to like it here!

All the photos in this post were taken from the dozen or so overlooks along the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor – a 12-mile portion of Hwy 101 which began soon after I entered the state.  One overlook was closed (from the tallest bridge in Oregon, which was having some work done and was reduced to one lane, with the pedestrian portion closed) and two or three others required steep walks to get to the viewing areas, but I stopped at all the rest.

About 3 o’clock Friday afternoon the sun finally burned through the marine layer and the blue sky started reflecting nicely off the water.

This is Whale Rock:

This is Arch Rock, at the final overlook along the Scenic Corridor.  At 511pm when I took these the afternoon sun created a glare off the ocean.  I will definitely be back Saturday and possibly Sunday to get photos from the same vantage point.

 

Friday I drove up the first 30 miles of the southern Oregon coast after crossing over from California.  Here are some of the incredible views I had throughout the afternoon (and because it was afternoon some were taken looking into the late day sun.  I hope to get pictures from the same vantage points Saturday with the sun behind me).

From high up on a hill, looking down below a cloud (which you can see in the 3rd photo above):

Shortly after taking these photos I arrived in the little town of Gold Beach where I’ll be staying for two nights.  I will backtrack to these same areas on Saturday and hopefully have the sun behind me, although the marine layer often doesn’t burn off until early to mid-afternoon so the sun will then be above me.  Depending on how Saturday goes I may hang around here Monday as well, as I will be staying 3 nights at my next stop further up the road so I’ll have more time to see things up that way.

 

The brochures for this area in Oregon promise “world class wind surfing” and I got a small taste of it when I arrived at Pistol River State Park around 530pm Friday.  The water in the foreground is where the Pistol River empties into the Pacific Ocean (which, as you may have guessed, is in the background).

The first place I parked I saw these two wind surfers, a man and a woman, zipping back and forth across the river.

The sky was clear and it was extremely windy so they both took advantage of that to practice some literal wind surfing – getting airborne:

In this next photo she is easily 6 to 8 feet off the water:

I’ll be in the area two more days, and there are supposed to be some great wind surfing spots further north, so I imagine I’ll be seeing more of this.