With a full day ahead of us and beautiful weather encouraging us, Ridley and I made our way to the coast to spend the day playing in the sand and chasing waves. With a full bag of his construction trucks, we set to work building our construction site with hills, pits, and roads connecting them all. At one point, Ridley found a crab pincher that he thought was pretty cool; I had to agree!
Heceta Head Lighthouse OR
To Marys Peak, the Coast and Back Again
in Adventure, Photography
The final day of my adventure "stay-cation" had me with a travel buddy. Brittany wanted to get some exploring in herself, so she joined me on my last day as we visited Marys Peak, the Devils Punch Bowl, Thor's Wells, and the Heceta Head Lighthouse. We took on the day in that order, and except for the lighthouse, it was all new territory for the both of us. I regularly find myself amazed by always wanting to get away for an exotic adventure when there is still so much to see in our backyards.
Marys Peak was beautiful, and we happened to be there for a fantastic display of wildflowers, but I really enjoyed my time on the coast, and more specifically, Cape Perpetua. This is incredible, to be honest, I had no idea we had this sort of thing in Oregon. For one, a blowhole of this size, and two the formations of the rocks, it felt like we were back in Hawaii. I could have spent hours there, but I'll have to save it for another day, I think it would be perfect for sunset.
Overall, my little "stay-cation" adventure was a lot of fun, and I want to try and do more weekends like it when it makes sense. It was fun to see so much of Oregon and the variety it has to offer with her beauty. It was also a lot of fun to end the last day with Brittany.
Little Adventures: Fun at the Coast
We had such a great time at the beach. It started off somewhat overcast, but the weather was still quite pleasant. We brought a few toys to play in the sand and had great snacks to keep our bellies full. We would go back and forth from playing in the sand to running from ways to exploring the rocks and tide pools. My favorite memory from the day was burring Ridley halfway in the sand.
Heceta Head Lighthouse
After a beautiful day in the valley, I made last minute planes to jet over to the coast to capture the sunset at Heceta Head beach. The drive was only an hour away so it was easy to make it to the coast on a whim and I had not been in a while either way. I found a few interesting areas on the way over, a beautiful field and an abandoned boat. The closer I got to the coast, the more my hope for a beautiful sunset faded. It's fascinating how different the weather can be just an hour away.
When I finally made it to Heceta Head, it was fogged in, this gave me the place nearly to myself and made parking easy. I'd been to this spot many times, so I quickly hit up the usual spots and tried to decide what I wanted to do because of the fog. It was the kind of fog that just made everything grey.
I then realized that after all these times to this beach, I'd never made the short hike up to the lighthouse. So with nothing left to lose, I headed up. I was immediately pleased with the fog in the trees, and the moody feel the closer I got to the lighthouse. Once there, I quickly realized the potential of the spinning light in the lighthouse and the fog for a prolonged exposure. I ran back to the car and grabbed my tripod and made my way back. I was running out of time as the park closed soon and had a locking gate.
With only 30 minutes to spend scouting and shooting, I did my best to find a shot. I must have looked like a chicken with its head cut off running around looking for the shot and trying to shoot what I could. Once I was as close as I comfortably could get to my time constraint, I headed back. I came around a corner to an opening and took one last view of the lighthouse and saw the shot I wanted. It took me a few times to get the timing right for the light beam and my long exposer, but I'm pleased with the results.
Photography Date: 8-26-16
Writing Date: 2-26-18
