Olympic National Park: Kayaking… The Pacific Coast Series #24

July 15, 2024July 13, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 24 Comments

Cushman Lake is a fairly large lake around 10 miles in length and a 100 feet in depth. While it isn’t in Olympic National Park, the northern end where we kayaked serves at the gateway to the Staircase entry to the park. The road into the park can be seen on the right. The Skokomish River, which I featured in my last post, flows into the lake at the upper right end of this photo.

The upper end of the lake is connected to the lower end via the bridge on the left. We kayaked from the Bear Gulch Picnic Site and explored this upper section including the lower end of the Skokomish River.

The red pin shows the location of Lake Cushman in Washington. Note: Forks, the site of the Twilight books and movies, is on the upper left. We were camped near Shelton.

Our niece, Christina and Peggy are kayaking into the Skokomish River here. The slight blur around Peggy was due to a drop of water on my lens. Grin.

Peggy caught this interesting photo. An old growth forest of huge trees once occupied this canyon before they were logged out. These large stumps, now flooded by the lake, provide perspective. Compare them to the trees on the lake’s edge. And doesn’t the photo seem surreal?

Peggy and Christina wanted their photo taken by these roots from another large tree that would have once stood in the canyon before Lake Cushman was dammed. The bridge on the map can be seen in the background.

This surface shot of upper Lake Cushman shows how shallow the hundred foot deep lake had become.

Peggy found this merganser with its chicks.

And she imagined this bush as a huge spider lurking on the bank of the Skokomish waiting to capture unwary kayakers.

This stump on the lake’s edge was busy growing its own forest

Tall trees lined a portion of the upper lake.

Large rocks were located in the forests above the lakes.

We wondered what wildlife the cave might host? A snoozing bear in the winter, perhaps…

Peggy found a convenient tree to rest under on the Skokomish River.

It was a beautiful day for kayaking. A slight breeze came up and the water grew more choppy in the early afternoon.

We rowed over to the bridge for a glance at the lower section of Cushman Lake and things got much more windy and choppy! We decided that it was time to call it a day. That’s it for now. Next, we will feature a walk at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge north of Olympia that Christina took us on.

Olympic National Park: A Hike Up the Staircase Rapids Trail… Pacific Coast Series #23

July 12, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 17 Comments

Olympic National Park has both beauty and diversity ranging from its well known rain forest to high mountains, coastline, lakes, rivers and wildlife. We’ve been there several times over the years and were looking forward to exploring even more of what it has to offer. This photo was take from our kayaks on Cushman Lake which is at the southern entrance to Olympic.

But the best laid plans of “Mice and Men”… You know how that goes. I developed a health issue and decided to go directly to Olympia rather than the gorgeous campsite on a bay near Port Angeles we had reserved for a week. It turns out the issue wasn’t urgent. My doctor in Virginia told us to continue on our trip and see her when we got back.

Fortunately, we were already planning to visit our niece, Christina, who works in Olympia. She is a good friend, as are her brother Jay and her sister Amy. Jay and I have backpacked together. Both Jay and Christina have been to Burning Man with us, and Peggy is Amy’s godmother. Before starting on our West Coast adventure, we had just completed our safari trip to South Africa with their dad John (Peggy’s brother) and his wife Frances!

Christina had taken time off from work as an attorney for the Washington State Attorney General’s office and had a ton of outdoor stuff planned for us. Fortunately, one of these activities included a hike up the Staircase Rapids Trail on the Skokomish River at the southern end of the park.

Moss covered trees are an iconic symbol of Olympic National Park. No surprise, it’s a rain forest! The park receives 100-140 inches a year— more on the coast, less as you journey inland. It is estimated that it takes 70-100 inches a year to create a rainforest. We were hiking on the park’s Staircase Rapids Trail when we took this photo. The trail and Lake Cushman receive around 100 inches a year.

The moss creates a magical world where you half expect to find elves around the next corner. Or Bigfoot.

Speaking of roots, I wondered if this tree was about to rise up and go wandering. Had we arrived at Fanghorn Forest from Lord of the Rings?

If so, he was lying down and taking a nap for a year or two.

This was the granddaddy of roots along the trail, however. I half expected to find a dryad/wood nymph playing among the roots.

And did! At no prompting from us, Christian immediately headed over to the tree and started climbing among the roots of the forest giant— like she belonged there.

Given the name of the trail, Staircase Rapids, we expected to find rapids along the trail. And we did. But they were gentle. We had missed the massive runoff from snowmelt in the spring.

Most of the snow had already melted off.

Small rapids have a charm of their own, however.

A bridge across the Skokomish River provided this view.

One brave soul wanted a different perspective. At 81, I decided to pass… Grin.

And depended on my telephoto to bring me up close and personal. That’s it for today. Monday’s post will find us kayaking on Cushman Lake and the Skokomish River just below the Staircase Rapids.

Kayaking on the Skokomish River at the edge of Olympic National Park

There’s more to Tillamook than Cheese: There’s Ice Cream… Pacific Coast Series #22

July 8, 2024July 7, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 30 Comments

Unless you live in Oregon or have traveled through the state on the Pacific Coast Highway, it’s likely that you think of cheese or ice cream when you hear the word Tillamook rather than the town or region. The products are distributed widely throughout the US. The Tillamook Creamery produces 170,000 pounds of cheese and 18,000 gallons of ice cream every day and has a cold storage facility capable of aging 50 million pounds of cheese at once. It has a secondary creamery in the town of Boardman on the Colombia River east of Portland that produces another 300,000 pounds of cheese a day.

Peggy and I normally include Tillamook on our route when we travel up the Oregon Coast. We are big fans of the ice cream. Both of the containers above are in the process of being eaten! They were given to us by our niece, Christina, last week when we visited her in Olympia. She knows our taste in ice cream. Our weekly Date Day treat for years has been a substantial bowl of Tillamook’s vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. Peggy likes to add a sprinkle of Heath Bar English Toffee Bits to hers. I sometimes substitute Irish cream liquor for the hot fudge. Whatever we add, the total package adds up to decadence.

We also like Tillamook’s cheese. I often have its pepper jack on hand. But there are so many excellent cheeses out there, most of what we eat comes from different creameries. Our trip up the Pacific Coast over the past three months qualified as a cheese lover’s dream— and we took full advantage of it.

The entrance to the visitor center at the Tillamook Creamery. A large restaurant and ice cream parlor is on the left. Visitors are invited to watch the processing of cheese on the right. There is also a large gift shop where anything the creamery produces is for sale. With over 1.3 million visitors annually, the creamery is one of Oregon’s top tourist destinations. On a busy summer day, up to 17,000 visitors will tour the facility.

It all starts with cows, and, when you walk into the entrance, Tilly the Cow is there to greet you. The creamery is actually a cooperative owned by local dairy farmer families that go back several generations. One example of the importance of cattle in the region was that the herds had a special evacuation route across the coastal mountains during World War II in case of a Japanese invasion.

My fellow blogger and friend Crystal Trulove of the blog, *Conscious Engagement*, came over from Portland to visit us in Tillamook. Her best bud, Pedro, and his two sons Liam and Andre, joined us in chowing down on various flavors of ice cream at the creamery. Bone also made it into the photo. Crystal, who is a Cherokee, took Bone with her to visit the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. (BTW: For new followers of this blog, Tom Lovering, a friend of mine, and I found Bone when we were backpacking in 1977. Bone has been traveling with us and friends ever since. He has been to over 50 countries and had incredible adventures, including being blessed by the Pope, attending a Presidential Press Conference, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and being married at Burning Man to the beautiful Bonetta.)

We also visited the Tillamook Forest Center with Crystal, Pedro and the boys. Smokey the Bear greets visitors. An old donkey steam engine can be seen on the side. Crystal took this photo from a fire tower that is next to the Center.

Peggy and Crystal snuggle up to Smokey. The bear looks like he has put on a few pounds. I’d say it’s middle age spread except Smokey has left middle age far behind. He turns 80 in August. Shouldn’t his fur be showing some grey hair?

The inside of the Tillamook Forest Center is crammed full of information on the forest industry and tells the story of how the area recovered from three devastating fires in the 40s and 50s

Tha attractive Wilson River flows by the Forest Center. A walking bridge across the river provides great views. This is looking down the river. (Photo by Crystal Trulove.)

As might be expected, given that Tillamook is a few miles away from the spectacular Pacific Northwest coast, there is also great scenery in the area. We were staying at the Netarts Garden RV Resort on Netarts Bay and this was the view from our campground. The dots are seals— *bellied up to the sand bar*, so to speak.

The Netarts Garden RV Resort lived up to its name by being covered with flowers such as these.

You know what they say, however: A rose by any other name is still a rose. We found this wild one out on Cape Meares, which is just up the road from Netarts Bay.

The roses decorated a path leading up to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

The lighthouse, framed by trees and bushes.

A signboard informed us that the French hand-ground Fresnel Lens is one of only two eight sided lights in the US. The other is in Hawaii.

The Cape Meares Lighthouse has the distinction of being the shortest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.

The Octopus Tree is another well-know feature of Cape Meares. Whether created by nature or careful pruning by Native Americans, the sitka spruce has eight branches that travel outwards parallel to the ground and then shoot up into the air. (One of the original limbs has been cut off, in case you are counting.)

Like so many other locations along the Pacific coast, there were towering seas stacks…

And plunging cliffs. Last time we were here, we watched baby murres flutter down to the ocean and their waiting fathers. That’s it for today. The next post will take us up to Olympia and Olympic National Park.

Heceta Head Lighthouse, a Classic Bridge, Kayaking, and Dunes… Pacific Coast Series #21

June 28, 2024June 27, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 23 Comments

Like a moth to a porch light, I’ve always been attracted to lighthouses. There is something about their remote, often scenic, location that I find incredibly romantic. The Heceta Head Lighthouse is one of many located along the Oregon Coast, and is among the most beautiful. At one time or the other, I’ve been to all of them.

It’s hard to beat the lighthouse’s front row seat on the Pacific Ocean. Imagine watching the giant waves crashing ashore from here during a major storm. Or being here when the sun was casting the nearby islands and lighthouse in a warm glow, as it did during our visit.

Naturally, we had to photograph the lighthouse from a number of different perspectives. (Peggy was taking the photo featured on top.)

Heceta Head Lighthouse was built in 1894 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The two islands located next to Heceta Head added to the scenery. The top of the islands hosted nesting cormorants, murres and California sea gulls. We were surprised (and pleased) with how the camera depicted the ocean behind the islands.

The scenery changed to crashing waves at the bottom of the islands.

That left behind hundreds of cascading waterfalls.

This was the head lighthouse keeper’s home. Not bad. It now serves as a B&B.

Calla lilies cascaded down the hillside off to the right of the house. We have found them in every location we have camped at along the coast on our journey north.

Just above the picket fence there was a small gift shop. I’m not sure Peggy has ever found one she didn’t want to visit. Besides, she was on a mission: Looking for octopuses. She’s been searching for them ever since she read a book on their intelligence. She found one and named it Octo.

Leaving Heceta Head we took two more photos. One a beach level photo of the two islands…

And two, this iconic Oregon bridge built over Cape Creek, which flows into the small bay just beneath the lighthouse. The bridge opened in 1932. It was designed by Conde McCullough who was also responsible for designing a number of other classic bridges found along Highway 101 in Oregon.

Back at camp, things got a little strange. Octo immediately climbed up on Bone as a convenient perch for keeping track of what was happening inside and outside of our tiny trailer/house. We thought Bone would go crazy and toss the presuming octopus into the nearest ocean…

But Bone, being Bone, merely thought of Octo as a rather unique new hat he could wear on formal occasions.

While Eeyore, the donkey, moderated a discussion between Bone and Octo about their new living arrangements, Peggy and I prepared to try out our new boats, a pair of Aquaglide, Deschutes 130 inflatable kayaks. I was bit nervous. It wasn’t about the kayaking. We had owned a pair of Innova inflatable kayaks for 25 years and kayaked in such diverse waters as Alaska and the Florida Everglades, the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and the Gulf of California off of Baja. My concern was how our new kayaks would handle. Plus it would be our first time setting them up.

We chose to head out to Cleawox Lake at Honeyman State Park, which is just south of Florence. We had kayaked there before in our Innovas. Setting our new kayaks up turned out to be relatively easy and they handled beautifully.

Here, Peggy is checking out some water lilies. Knowing how much I always enjoy them, she called me over with my camera.

Having got my water lily fix, we kayaked toward one of the coastal sand dunes located at the upper end of the lake. The Oregon Dunes are world famous for their extent and for their appeal to the dune-buggy crowd. I don’t think that the dune buggies are allowed here, but the spots you see a third of the way up the dune are people sand boarding, which is also a popular sport.

I learned a fun fact about the dunes when I was getting my haircut in Florence. The barber, who was a sci-fi fan, noticed me reading a sci-fi book. “Did you know that Frank Herbert was inspired to write *Dune* by a visit he made to the Oregon Dunes in the late 50s researching a magazine article he was writing about how people were trying to control the flow of the sand over roads and trails in Florence.” Researching the story when I got back to camp, I found several articles that confirmed the fact.

That’s a wrap for today. For our next post we will be in Tillamook, Oregon which is the home of Tillamook ice cream and Tillamook cheese. We will take you to the factory where it is produced. Plus.

This large cow photo, which must be at least 20 feet tall, stands above the entry to the Tillamook Creamery.

The Wild Pacific as Rarely Seen: Devils Churn, Cooks Chasm, Spouting Horn, and Thors Well… Pacific Coast Series #20

June 24, 2024June 23, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 23 Comments

Roaring down a narrow passage between dark volcanic rocks, this wave will soon crash into a rock wall and shoot into the air, creating a breathtaking display of the ocean’s power and danger. Peggy and I were standing on rocks at the edge of this daunting channel, The Devils Churn.

My first visit to the Devils Churn was in the late 70s during a massive Pacific storm. My brother and a partner owned an old hotel on the edge of the ocean a few miles south of the Churn between the towns of Florence and Yachats. Since my dad was managing the hotel, I had driven up to visit him. “Curt,” he had said, “you have to go see the Devils Churn, but stay way back. In a major storm, it can throw huge logs into the air.”

This is the hotel my brother co-owned and my dad managed on Oregon’s scenic coastline in the late 70s and early 80s. A path led down to the ocean. My brother and his partner sold it at an incredible bargain without telling me it was for sale. I never quite forgave him. I would have bought it, even if I had to rob a bank!

While it was a beautiful, sunny day when Peggy and I visited the Devils Churn a few weeks ago, there had been a substantial storm the day before and the ocean was still riled up with large waves crashing ashore. This was just off the beginning of the Churn.

Close to 80 feet wide at the beginning, the Churn narrows to a few feet at the end. The channel was created over thousands of years from either a collapsed sea cave formed by the waves or possibly a collapsed lava tube. Barely visible on the the left, you can see the trail that leads right down to the bottom.

Railings follow the trail down to the Churn where visitors are allowed to walk out on the rocks— with dire warnings.

Another view of the waves crashing into the cliff. The rocks on the right have just been coated with the foam created by the Churn, not a place to be standing.

A moment of relative calm. The waves roll in continuously. One is about to crash in to the cliff while another follows. Water from the first wave then flows back toward the ocean, hitting the next wave, which adds to churning action. Thick brown foam that resembles whipped cream is the result of all the action.

Chaos might be a good description. It’s not a good place to go for a swim— whether you mean to or not.

Just south of Devils Churn are three more impressive results of the ocean carving out channels in the basaltic rock: Cooks Chasm, the Spouting Horn, and Thors Well. Here, a giant wave makes its way into Cooks Chasm. Captain Cook made his way past this area on March 7, 1778.

The wave continues to roll into Cooks Chasm.

When the wave crashes into the end, it forces water into a cave. The pressure created in the cave blows the water out of a hole in its roof, thus creating the Spouting Horn seen on the upper right.

Another view across the twisted basaltic rocks where the Spouting Horn appears almost ghost-like.

Cooks Chasm can be seen from Oregon’s Coast Highway 101.

The result of the pounding action of the waves in Cooks Chasm is similar to that of Devils Churn.

The people here provide a perspective on where Peggy and I were standing.

Thors Well is just north of Cooks Chasm. Here a wave arrives…

As the wave retreats, Thors Well re-emerges.

A final view. Below is a map that shows the relationship between the three locations.

Yachats is about 2 1/2 miles north of Devils Churn. My brother’s hotel was five miles to the south.

In our next post we will take you to Heceta Head Lighthouse shone here, and invite you to join us as we break in our new kayaks!

Important Lessons from Birds: Florence, Oregon… Pacific Coast Series #19

June 21, 2024June 20, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 26 Comments

A great blue heron perched behind our camp in Florence, Oregon appeared to have lost its neck. Had it stuck it out too far?

Peggy and I have visited Florence, Oregon a number of times over the years. It was a short 2 1/2 hour drive from our home above the Upper Applegate River in Southern Oregon. We spent the majority of our visits camped at the Siuslaw Marina. The prices are reasonable, the people friendly, and Old Town, with its good restaurants and fun shops, is within easy walking distance. But there’s more…

The Oregon Dunes are just south of the town. The Devil’s Churn, Thor’s Well, the Sea Lion Caves, and the Heceta Head Lighthouse are just a few miles north. There are even some good kayaking opportunities nearby. In other words, there was alway plenty to keep us amused doing things we love to do.

One thing about our stays at the Marina— we had never been able to obtain a site on the Siuslaw River. They fill up fast. People sign up for them months in advance. This time, because Peggy and I were staying for two weeks, I made our reservations early and we scored a spot on the river. Most of the photos today are taken from our ‘backyard.’ We will be featuring five birds: Great blue herons will provide lessons on preening, a great white egret will share its secrets on fishing, a not so impeccable seagull will teach how to get down and dirty, Canada geese will demonstrate the best way to keep track of kids, and, finally, cormorants will hold a large meeting doing who knows what.

An evening view from our backyard on the Siuslaw River. The old pylons out in the river speak to how busy it was in the past. Once, they held up various structures; now have become a primary perching place for birds.

Water birds put a lot of effort into preening. It’s their way of preparing for a busy day of work. This great blue Heron demonstrates just how much effort. Check out its neck. Linda Blair from the 1973 movie, *The Exorcist*, would not have been able to manage this trick.

It’s important to dress appropriately for whatever activity you have planned for the day. The heron here plans on spending a lot of time in the water so he is waterproofing his feathers. He stores oil in his uropygial gland at the base of his tail feathers for the job. “His what?” you ask. At least I did. So I looked it up and learned it’s a bilobed sebaceous gland. Consider yourself informed.

Having gathered oil, in his beak, the heron proceeds to oil his feathers. Preening involves more, however. Cleaning, positioning and interlocking feathers are all involved. Parasites are kept under control as well.

In terms of parasites, sometimes a good scratch is in order. (It was getting dark when I took this photo and a couple of the others, so clarity was a little fuzzy.)

Having finished preening, “Who’s the pretty bird?”

Next up, a great egret demonstrates how to catch and eat a fish.

You will need to get wet. Step off into the water.

You may have to stick your neck out, take a chance.

There will come a moment when it is time to strike. A second’s hesitancy may cost dinner. (I hesitated for a second and missed the photo.)

Success. Next up, you eat what you catch. This isn’t catch and release. Good news, you don’t have to clean or cook the fish. This is sushi at its wiggly rawest.

You do have to position the fish so you can swallow it. It is unlikely someone will be around to perform a Heimlich maneuver.

One of the more serene photos of California gulls we have ever taken. Notice how clean it is, how pristine. That is about to change.

Our serene friend caught a crab on the shore just behind our trailer.

Pieces of the crab were broken off to eat.

There is no doubt that Canada Geese have perfected the art of taking their kids from place to place. Peggy caught the young geese traveling in a neat line between their mother and father.

While the babies are easy to keep in line, the teenagers require a few more directions. Grin. Check out the extended necks of the adults. It isn’t hard to imagine a bit of scolding.

Maybe mom and dad were urging them to do some independent foraging.

One of the youngsters found some tasty seaweed that a sibling was eager to share. I’m pretty sure that the message was “Go get your own.”

Peggy noticed a gathering of cormorants up the river from our backyard and we tried to figure out what they were up to. It seemed that the adults were up on the pylons while the younger and smaller cormorants were swimming beneath them.

Soon a large flock of cormorants had gathered. Again, the majority of the flock in the water were immature birds based on their light color. I thought the dead tree in the background made a nice backdrop.

I learned an interesting fact about cormorant intelligence when I was trying to figure out why they were gathering. The can count to seven: “Chinese cormorants on the Li River are allowed to keep every eighth fish they catch. Otherwise they “stubbornly refuse to move again until their neck ring is loosened.”

And now for a few miscellaneous photos.

We liked the way it was outlined by an old wooden structure.

Most days a lone seal would rest on what may have been a cross beam to a pier at one time.

Looking west from our campsite, we noticed this interesting cloud formation one evening. Peggy identified it as a flock of flying dragons.

Another evening we watched a sunset out to the west, which will wrap up today’s post. Next we will take you out to the Devil’s Churn near Yachats, Oregon where the pounding ocean turns foam into a thick, brown froth with the texture of whipped cream.

Sea Birds, Seals, and Scenery: Bandon by the Sea… Pacific Coast Series # 18

June 17, 2024June 16, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 18 Comments

There is more to the unusual beauty of Bandon By The Sea than sea stacks. This photo is from one of the beach walks we took while we were visiting 3 weeks ago is an example.

Graceful wooden walkways down to the beach add to the beauty. A fine mist was working its way inland.

There were two sets of stairs down to the beach, this one that started near the Face Rock parking lot and the one above that was located to the north . The driftwood next to the stairs here had been tossed up by winter storms over time.

Down on the beach the waves had carried in a large tree; its roots are shown here.

We found this blog-worthy piece of driftwood on our walk into Devil’s Kitchen when we were heading out to explore the tide pools.

This rattlesnake grass gets its name from the seed pods that resemble the rattles on a rattlesnake.

I liked the contrast here of the dried grass and green shrubs caught in the evening sunset.

Peggy enjoyed the flower gardens that grew on the sea stacks.

And, of course, Bandon had its share of seals lollygagging on the rocks off its shore.

As we have seen on our trip up the coast, offshore sea stacks/islands play host to myriads of nesting sea birds. This island, like most of them along the coast, is a marine sanctuary. Most of the dots are Brandt cormorants…

But murres were also nesting on the rock in their usual numbers. When they are packed together, each murre occupies around six square inches to raise its chick. I read that the parents come back to their same six inches year after year.

An information board along the walkway above the beach included a photo of one of the Murre’s oddly shaped, colorful eggs. Each egg has a different pattern that its parents can recognize. When the chick reaches 3-4 weeks of age (even before it can fly), it’s time to say goodbye to its tiny space. Dad flies down to the ocean and calls to the chick while mom hangs out above. (I wonder if she gives her baby the boot.) Anyway, baby takes the leap and flutters down to dad, who then takes it out to the ocean to feed it fish until it can fly and hunt for its own fish.

When we were exploring tide pools at Devil’s Kitchen in Bandon, Peggy noticed a pair of pelagic cormorants nesting in the rocks above us. Unlike the Brandt cormorants shown above, they seem happy hanging out on their own.

Whether they were curious about us or nervous, they watched us closely. Note their crests.

We also spotted the first pigeon guillemots we had seen on our trip.

Check out those red feet! When the male courts the female, it walks in circles around her showing them off. “Oh, what bright shiny red big feet you have,” is the hoped for response.

I was trying to catch a photo of an oyster catcher when a wave hit the rock. This was the result.

This was the sea stack where we checked out tide pools and saw the pelagic cormorants, pigeon guillemots and the oyster catcher. Note the California gull way up on top. Peg and I noticed that there would often be one perched on the highest point of the sea stacks.

On the way back to our truck a crow feasted on a giant sand flea.

Here’s what it looks like. When I was a kid we used to visit my grandparents down on the central coast of California. My grandfather loved surf fishing and would put my brother Marshall and me to work capturing these guys. Fish go crazy for them. When a wave retreats you look for small holes with bubbles coming out and dig! As I recall, our grandfather gave us a nickel for each one of the delicacies….. a fortune!

I’ll wrap up our Bandon posts with a photo of a fishing boat that was docked at the marina. Next up, our “backyard”, on the Siuslaw River in Florence, Oregon. Question: Who wins the windblown look?

Labyrinths and Trash Sculptures, Plus: Bandon Art… Pacific Coast Series #17

June 14, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 25 Comments

The tide was rolling in, erasing an elaborate labyrinth in the sand when we arrived at Face Rock Overlook in Bandon. Had we arrived earlier we could have walked from one end of the art work to the other.

It’s really hard to choose a favorite small town along the Pacific Coast from Central California to Olympic National Park in Washington. The competition is ferocious. Of the ones we have stayed at or visited on this trip, our favorites so far are Point Reyes Station, Mendocino, and Bandon. We could happily live in any of them. Each of these towns are easily walkable, have unique personalities, and feature incredible seashore scenery and wildlife. I might add that both Point Reyes Station and Mendocino have top of the line independent bookstores, a factor that Peggy and I always consider. While Bandon has a small bookstore with a good selection for its size, it is the town’s dedication to public art that stands out. We will be featuring four different aspects today.

Denny Dyke began creating his sand sculptures on the sand near Face Rock over 10 years ago. Peggy and I remember seeing one during one of our first visits to Bandon after we moved to Oregon. Now his project has been adopted and supported by the whole community of Bandon.

No two designs are ever the same. This year’s theme is love.

We watched as a woman added a heart and filled it with colorful small pebbles.

Natural rock forms are worked into the designs.

Here the design, now being washed away by the tide, had been worked around what I called the Lion’s Head.

Peggy, who can never resist a labyrinth, was walking what had been left of it by the tide. Walks are actually scheduled on days when the labyrinths are created between the time they are finished and before the tide washes them away. The website for Circles in the Sand lists the dates and times and suggests that the walk takes about 20 minutes.

A final view looking south along the shore. In ways, creating art to be washed away by the tides reminds me of Burning Man where beautiful works of art are created and then burned.

While not part of labyrinth, we thought that this whale that Peggy and I found on the beach made of driftwood and small rocks deserved to be included.

I featured this tufted puffin in my last post. It was created from trash gathered along the beaches of Oregon by the organization Washed Ashore. The stated purpose of the organization is: “To build and exhibit aesthetically powerful art to educate a global audience about plastic pollution in the ocean and waterways and to spark positive changes in consumer habits.” It has done an amazing job.

A close up of the puffin’s head. Washed Ashore sculptures created in Bandon can now be found in locations across the US and around the world, each with its powerful message about trash thrown into the ocean.

While we found the puffin along the trail that follows the coast near Face Rock, this fish by Washed
Ashore was located down at Bandon’s Marina right next to the town.

Bandon’s Marina also featured several impressive carved wood sculptures such as this octopus…

While we were visiting, volunteers were busily hanging art for Bandon’s 21st Annual Boardwalk Art Show. Anyone from kids to professional artists was invited to submit a painting. Liking weird (I won’t blame Peggy here) I selected four appropriately strange paintings for today’s post.

If you have had much experience with seagulls, it isn’t hard to imagine them pulling a stunt like this. Our next post will wrap-up Bandon with a focus on scenery, seals and sea birds.

A creek meanders out to the Pacific Ocean at Devil’s Kitchen, Bandon, Oregon.

The Star of Devil’s Kitchen: Bandon’s Fascinating Tide Pools… The Pacific Coast Series 16

June 10, 2024June 9, 2024 / Curt Mekemson / 31 Comments

“Curt, you have to see this,” Peggy called, tearing me away from taking a photo of 3452 mussels. It was a human shaped sea star nestled in among anemones, mussels, and goose neck barnacles. There was no doubt about it. She had found the Star of Devil’s Kitchen!

Peggy and I love to futz around in tide pools. There are always amazing things to see and unending drama. It’s a who eats who world. So far on our trip up the coast we had missed the opportunity. We were feeling deprived. Low tides had either been too early or too late. Bandon’s was perfect. We headed out to Devil’s Kitchen, a spot we had visited before. I had forgotten how the area got its name and did a search. Lo and behold, Google sent me straight to an earlier blog of mine. So I am going to quote the ‘expert,’ me: “It has to do with the cold waters of the ocean bringing a rich brew of nutrients to the surface that are eaten by plankton, that are eaten by small fish, that are eaten by bigger fish, that are eaten by still bigger fish, that are eaten by seals, sea lions, otters, and a whole host of seabirds, not to mention people and anything else that can sink their teeth into them.” Welcome to the feast.