Far From the Maddening Crowds

On a not very well marked road today I found an almost invisible trail.


It led through tall ferns and ceanothus and wild rose and blackberries and wild flowers..



...and more ferns and windswept forests where the trees crouched close to the ground....

.... along sandy cliffs....


...through more green tunnels which seemed to be made up of mostly light and shadow....



....over grassy dunes....



.....until it reached the end of land.



No one to the north.



No one to the south.



An entire beach all to myself! On a warm jacketless day with just a whisper of a breeze. How rare is that for an Oregon beach, even in the middle of summer!

Except, I didn't really have the beach to myself. True, I didn't have to share it with any other humans. But to say that it was uninhabited would be about as silly as saying that we Europeans "discovered" America. (No we didn't, the native population knew it was here all along.)


These little trilobyte looking creatures were here, rolling in the surf.


There were a lot of birds. These vultures were trying to look ferocious, to scare me off their lunch...

.... a dead seal carcass - at least I think it's a seal, or sea lion. A small one. You can still see the flipper. And ewww, no thanks. I think I'll pass on stealing this for myself.



The tiniest crab ever!



Do you see the .... not sure what kind of bird it is, a sand piper perhaps? There were two of them, both jumping about behind rocks and driftwood and fluttering their wings as if to say "Look at me! I'm hurt. Follow me!" They were working so very, very hard to get my attention. Why?


Well, to protect two tiny fluffy chicks that were skittering about. Can you see this one? Great camouflage, huh! I took it with a telephoto lens from about fifteen feet away. I didn't want to give the poor parents heart attacks by getting any closer. When I finally walked away, one of the parents, not sure if it was mommy or daddy, did it's whole "I'm injured" dance in front of me for quite some time, very pleased that it's act was finally working.

I've had a lovely lovely time visiting many different beaches. But it's late, and alas, I have to get an early start home tomorrow. No more beach walking. Sniff. Oh well, I'll have to relive the moments by sharing lots more photos of the shore with you in the next few posts.

Need to see rock photos? (Come on, you know you do!) Well lucky for you, rock photos over at Laume's Studio.