eisman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2009
- Messages
- 6,921
I'm moving again, but taking some time off on the way. It's been a long time since I was able to just spend a little time driving the Oregon coast, but I love the place and for some reason it wasn't crowded with mobile homes that often make the drive painful. I took one of the smaller roads out from Medford and stopped a couple times to get fuel, something to drink, an rummage thru a couple antique stores. It was pretty good, and I found a few nice knives. The weather was pretty grey, but I was in no hurry, so I didn't make Coos Bay until the afternoon. The next morning I headed North and when I got to Newport it was clearing. I spent most of that day walking the beaches there. The attached photos are from that morning.
There was a lot of wildlife along the beach, with Sea Lions (including some new pups) out on the rocks and thousands of birds. The tidepools below the lighthouse were covered with sea urchins (which is why the sea lions were sticking around) and seastars. I also saw a couple different nudibranch (sea slugs), fish, and lots of hermit crabs. You can see a lot of these in the tide pool photo.
This is the beach at Newport looking north to Yaquina Head. You can see the lighthouse in the distance. Notice the tide is going out. The long flat beaches make for really good shellfish.
This is Yaquina Head. This is an old lava flow that sticks way out into the sea off what is othewise a pretty straight section of the coast. The beach is very cool, all small, round, black, rocks. The lava fractures into squarish blocks, and the sea rubs them together, founding off the edges, until you get the pebble beach.
The sea lions pretty much owned this cove, and there were a dozen or so small pups. Parents don't seem to pay much attention to them, but the water was pretty shallow where they were camped out.
There was a lot of wildlife along the beach, with Sea Lions (including some new pups) out on the rocks and thousands of birds. The tidepools below the lighthouse were covered with sea urchins (which is why the sea lions were sticking around) and seastars. I also saw a couple different nudibranch (sea slugs), fish, and lots of hermit crabs. You can see a lot of these in the tide pool photo.
This is the beach at Newport looking north to Yaquina Head. You can see the lighthouse in the distance. Notice the tide is going out. The long flat beaches make for really good shellfish.
This is Yaquina Head. This is an old lava flow that sticks way out into the sea off what is othewise a pretty straight section of the coast. The beach is very cool, all small, round, black, rocks. The lava fractures into squarish blocks, and the sea rubs them together, founding off the edges, until you get the pebble beach.
The sea lions pretty much owned this cove, and there were a dozen or so small pups. Parents don't seem to pay much attention to them, but the water was pretty shallow where they were camped out.
