i make things

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 8: Edition 3: Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Oregon is fun, beautiful and an entertaining place for families. There are activities for children, young and old, and rows and rows of beautiful tulips. A photographer's dream and a gardener's joy.

Tulips are EVERYWHERE! They are etched into the concrete paths, in planters and half-barrels, for sale in bags of bulbs, and in rows and rows in the fields.

The only downside to the farm for me was that it was a bit commercialized. I wasn't there with my nieces and nephews. I just wanted to take pictures of the flowers so it was a bit much for me. However, if you were there with a family it would be perfect.

The tulip farm is very good at having a lot of activities so when people come out they stay for awhile. It’s very suited to children as well. They have food and craft vendors on site as well as playground items for kids. You can take a motorized ride through the tulip fields instead of walking. One has padded seats and one does not. The “ferries” are basically john deere gators pulling wagons with seats.

Despite the amenities I wanted to walk. Walk out to the fields and walk up and down the rows. It was very idyllic.

They even had a pink tractor so I texted a picture of it to Dad. He happened to call me right when I got there so I was telling him about my day and the tulip gardens.

They also had huge wooden shoes you could try and walk around in and a small windmill just for photography purposes. Everything flowed around the dutch concept.

They had an old truck they used to haul tulips with. Now they just use it for photo-opps. There was a lot of “scenes” to take pictures of. Cutouts for kids to stick their heads in. Old rusty tractors to sit on and take pictures of. I liked all of those touches.

I walked the rows looking for the perfect shots. I squatted down, walked through the mud, in between rows, held my camera over my head, stood on this ladder/bridge thingy. I took pictures that were far away, close up, and I used my 50 mm lens for blurred backgrounds. I have more than enough pictures of Tulips to last a lifetime. I even managed to set up the self-timer so I could get one of me.

These beauties turned out to be my absolute favorite. Something about that light edging of yellow on that warm reddish color. It just takes that flower to an entirely different level. It almost seems like a neon-yellow. It's beautiful.

I took a TON of pictures. It was so beautiful. Rows and rows and rows and rows…phew and more rows of tulips. All colors of the rainbow. Reds, oranges, pinks, whites, yellows, purples, pinks, and combos. (red with yellow edging).

I called the tulips on the right Sunrise because they had all the pale colors of a morning sunrise; pink, peach, and pale yellow.

I loved these pointy tulips. I have never seen a tulip like that. I didn't realize there were so many different types of tulips. I guess I should know better than to assume.

I call this one "Black as Night"

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed seeing tulips all colors of the rainbow. If you'd like to see more of my adventures in the Pacific Northwest please click here.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 8: Edition 2: Downtown Eugene, OR

Downtown Eugene is an eclectic groovy mix of urbanite, artsy and hobo. It's very artsy in a warm and organic way. Red brick vs. colorful tile and woody nature references.

You have trendy urbanites, strange hobo-type people singing on the street, homeless people with dreadlocks and a sign that says “my dog ate my wallet”. I walked past one of them and the stench was so bad my eyes almost watered.

There is a lot of artwork downtown too. I took a picture of this huge mural all along a side of a building. It was from ground to roof all painted. So cool. That’s a lot of work and planning and inspiration.

I also took a pic of this neat sculpture on a street corner. I’m not sure how to describe it other than saying it was like a spear shooting out of the ground similar to the space needle in shape except thin on top and thick on the bottom. It was covered in a pattern of tiles that had different shapes and colors on them. The top had this golden globe. It was neat.

All around Eugene there is a special part of the streets dedicated just to bikes. They take their biking seriously. A lot of people use these roadways. Also I notice a heavy emphasis on being green so using the transit, walking or biking. I can appreciate that. Also they don’t give you plastic bags to cart around your purchases. They will give you one if you ask for it though.

When I was wandering the downtown it was close to noon and I was HUNGRY! I thought I’d hit the Voodoo Donuts in the downtown area.

*WARNING* - If you are easily offended you should stop reading right now. 

Turns out that was a wise choice. I got a cock-n-balls donut. It’s literally shaped like a...well, you know, um...ahhh, well, anyway. I'll let the picture tell the story.
I told the clerk that it was seriously the cheekiest donut I’ve ever seen so I was buying it. It was HUGE too. Covered with chocolate frosting and even had white cream filling. So naughty and so hilarious.

The store was eclectic. They gave you a big pink box to put it in.
They had old school video games too. One of them was Mario Brothers which I played for a quarter because I haven’t seen that game in forever. The old-fashioned stand-up video game where you have a joystick and 2 buttons. I beat the first level but ended up dying in the next. Ah well, it was only a quarter.

Next stop was Sizzle Pie. I spotted it on my way to the Donut shop.

There was a huge sign I could see thru the windows saying “EAT PIZZA”. I knew I had to stop. It called to me like a drug. PIZZA! Piiiiiiizzzzzaaa!

So I grabbed dessert first then grabbed an “Ace of Spades” piece of pie aka Pepperoni and a local root beer in a glass bottle. Tasty and it hit the spot.

Thanks for reading this post. If you'd like to read more about my Pacific Northwest Road Trip click here.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 8: Edition 1: Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park in Silverton, Oregon is a gem. A true treasure. A little slice of heaven...and the drive to get there isn't bad either.

The drive is a beautiful rolling drive through lush green farmland (animals not crops. I mention that because I'm from Minnesota and a farmkid so I naturally think of explaining the difference...whereas I'm guessing most people are like...ooookay lady. LOL).

It's an elegant drive through the Oregon countryside and then... you get to the falls. Oh the falls.

The South Falls is like nothing I've ever experienced. We have falls in Minnesota but not hikes like this.

I should probably start at the beginning of the Park because it would be a travesty to neglect it and just mention the falls themselves.

First of all the park itself is neat. There is a log cabin restaurant and souvenir shop. So iconically classic that I HAD TO stop and check it out. It's one of those buildings where your natural curiosity is peaked because it's a beautiful log cabin...so naturally there must be beautiful natural things in that shop. I wasn't wrong. There were beautiful things in that shop. Little trinkets and ornaments hand-carved out of wood. Things like that.

My favorite decoration in that shop was a map and log book of all the visitors that had visited the park. People from all over the world have seen this park. In fact there was a french couple in there while I was there.

I'm always fascinated by how one simple place can lure so many people from all over the world. I always wonder what they are thinking. Are they silently judging America and all our commercialism and greed? Are they just appreciating the beauties that our country holds? Are they wondering what I'm thinking? Wonder wonder wonder

I know, this is a post about Silver Falls not my internal questions. I'll stop now. :) I just wanted to point that out.

Just a glimpse of the falls as you walk to the starting point of the hike. There is a rocky ledge protecting you from falling over the cliff.

I love how the ferns and moss grow on the rocky ledge. I think it's a glorious green hedge of lushness.

Walking along the rocky ledge you get a glimpse of the 177 foot South Falls. As you criss-cross your way down the wet muddy path you are cuddled in by the mossy rocky ledge on your left. On the right is a dark brown sturdy wooden fence protecting you from falling.

As you get closer and closer you are misted by the falling and churning water. It's like a soft slow morning where you feel freshened up by the light wetness not drenched by it.

The start of this 8 mile hike is the South Falls. There are 10 waterfalls total if you continue along the path. I ended up only seeing this one because I didn't have the time to hike 8 miles. Although if I travel out to Oregon again I'd definitely start out in the am and make my way along that 8 miles.

The neatest part of this hike is that you get to experience the South Falls from all sides including top, bottom, left, right and even behind. Yep that’s right you can walk around behind it. It’s a wet journey but man is it cool. The pictures I have don’t do it justice. Some things I just can't put in a picture. You will have to experience it for yourself. I hope you do.

 

After this image of the South Falls you make your way downward toward the backside of the Falls.

As you get closer and closer the mossy ledge gives way to a very rocky steep rock-face.

At one point the spray of water got so bad I put my camera inside my raincoat because I didn't want my camera ruined. A little bit of wet is fine but a lot is dangerous.

This is the little cavern behind the falls. It is tall enough where you don't have to crouch down...unless you are a lot taller than my 5'4" self.

I'm crouched down here because I didn't want to block any of the background.

This was so neat. I felt like I was doing something I shouldn't be...even though this path is built for people to walk behind the falls. It felt like a place I shouldn't be but was. Like it was a secret place that was only for me.

This is directly behind the falls. You can't reach out and touch the water but you can definitely feel the rush of water crashing to the pool below. The noise is not deafening but it is definitely loud. If there were someone standing beside me I would have had to shout at them to be heard.

As you make your way along the backside of the falls and down the path you come across a bridge that you can cross. This is, yet again, a gorgeous view of the falls. From the front. You can see where you just came from and how big it truly is.

I politely asked a man photographing the falls to take my picture.

Honestly it's amazing to me when I ask people for photography help. They are always willing to do it. Always willing to grab my camera and take a picture even if they have no clue how to use my camera. People are nice in this respect. Always nice. This guy was no exception. He grabbed it right away and took several shots both landscape and portrait.

Crossing the bridge you meet up with the path you were originally on and can continue on the waterfall hike or go back to the main lodge. I went back to the parking lot.

I'm not going to lie, it was a hard hike going back up though, my calves were singing loud and clear, “owwwwww!!!"

As always it was worth it.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to read more about my Pacific Northwest adventure click here.

How to Photograph 4th of July Fireworks

Would you like to learn how to photograph fireworks? Have your fireworks pictures been just blah or so-so in previous years?

Would you like to go from This to That?

If you answered yes to any of those questions you've come to the right place.

I'm going to give you a quick tutorial on how I like to capture fireworks.

With any good image you've got to have a couple of rules. Yes, I know, photography is an art and there shouldn't be rules when it comes to art. Rules can stifle you. In this case in order to get the good shot you need to follow a couple rules. The rest, as they say, is up to  you.

1. Tripod - you MUST have one.

Why? Because you need to leave your shutter open for a second or more at a time. If you are holding your camera you are going to get camera shake. What is camera shake? Camera shake makes your images blurry. It's that slight vibration or movement that you exert while trying to hold the camera still. Normally you wouldn't notice it but when you are taking pictures with the shutter open (the shutter is what allows the light into the camera), it's visible.

Trust me. If you try and hold your camera you're going to look like you're an alcoholic that hasn't had a drinkin 4 hours. Shaky like a groom on his wedding night. I could go on with the metaphors but you get the idea.

2. Camera with Manual Mode - MUST have

Why? Firework photographs need a long exposure (aka the shutter is open longer than a milisecond). Most point and shoot cameras including smartphones don't have this option. You need a camera with a manual mode that allows you to adjust your shutter speed (Tv) to a second or more.

There is a night mode on smartphones which will hold open the camera's shutter for a a little longer than normal but it's not enough time for you to get grand sweeping fireworks picture. What I mean by that is you with get "THIS" and not "THAT".

THIS is a staccato burst of light. Basically dots of the fireworks light emitted.

THAT is a grand sweeping emission of color. You know those huge chandelier-like fireworks? They come down like a weeping willow tree? You want the shutter to stay open from start to finish so you can capture that entire image.

Those are the two MUST haves.

Somewhat Optional Items:

3.  Remote Control Timer - I like to use this because then I don't have my finger on the shutter the entire time. Which can also cause a little bit of camera shake. You press down and then lift off. There is a little camera shake there.

I also like a remote timer because you have complete control of how long the shutter remains open. You don't have to change your settings constantly to get the right shutter length.

Each set of fireworks is different. Some are shorter bursts and some are longer (chandelier). You want to be able to start and end your shutter at your own discretion.

That's basically it for necessities. What type of camera you have, what tripod and what remote is up to you.

4.  Camera Settings: Obviously there is debate amongst photographers what is best. What I'm going to do is give you my images from the last 7 years and what the settings were so you can judge for yourself which setting you want to use.

A couple of basics for you:

• I use BULB mode so that I can control all of the settings as well as the shutter speed. If you use manual you will have to change the Tv (Shutter speed) manually. Remember, that is how long the shutter stays open and therefore how much of the image you will capture. To little and you'll get staccato images and too much you will get way too much color and it'll look like a blob.
• I like to manually focus my camera at the beginning. If you put it on automatic sometimes the camera won't be able to focus until the firework has started. I'd suggest using the first couple of bursts to focus then start taking pictures.
• Landscape/Portrait - either will work. Fireworks are naturally vertical so this set-up lends well to them. However, I occasionally will switch to landscape and get the entire background as well (you know people, cars, buildings. This will give your fireworks perspective and you can really see how big they are. Plus you can always crop a landscape image to portrait in photoshop later on.
• ISO - I ALWAYS use ISO 100. You want a crisp and clear image not a grainy one so don't be afraid to use 100 instead of 1600.
• Aperture (Av): Aperture is what decides how much light goes into the camera. Shutter is how long the light goes into the camera and aperture is how much light goes into the camera. Aperture is like your pupil. During the day there is a lot of light so our pupil is smaller, letting in less light. At night it's dark and we can't see well therefore our pupil becomes larger thereby letting in more light giving us the ability to see better.

            A small aperture (described as f-stops) is f/32 which allows the entire image to be in focus. An f-stop             of f/1.4 would focus on a small image and completely blur the background.

            I've used several different apertures (Av) ranging from 6.3-32. I mostly stay in the 6-12 range. That             seems to work the best for me and the pictures I like. You can play around with this as well.

• Shutter speed - Generally speaking I hold mine open for a second or two but it really depends on what firework is going off and how much of it I want to capture. This I will leave up to you. My advice, start with a second and work your way from there (assuming you don't have the remote and need to set a shutter speed.)

Now, onto the pictures. A timeline of fireworks form 2007 to 2014:

I hope you enjoyed this post and these pictures. Good luck with your fireworks photographs and please leave links to your pictures. I'd love to see them.

Happy 4th of July!!

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 7: Edition 1: Grants Pass to Eugene on I5 and the Happy Donut

On to day 7 of my epic journey. The Pacific Northwest Road Trip!

Today was filled with a lot of driving along I5 from Grants Pass to Eugene. It's a lovely trip. A little over 2 hours. It's lovely, granted there are no sweeping vistas off cliffs but, nonetheless, the journey was beautiful.

Quite a bit of this drive is filled with ups, downs, and curves. It's like you are driving through the middle of the forest. There are trees in front, on both sides and behind you. I gotta say it's pretty cool.

 

It's like driving through the pass...think Seven Brides for Seven Brothers the old-school movie. You know the part where they have stolen their ladies and are driving the sleighs through the snow-covered pass during winter? It feels kinda like that.

You're threading an eye of the needle but the thread is your car and the road and the needle is the forest.

Here's the route.

Notice my pit stop? the Happy Donut. How can you have a happy donut you ask? Well, I'd say it's more that after eating the donut YOU are happy. Not the donut is happy.

They have a drive thru for grabbing donuts. How lovely. I didn't partake of that because I wanted to get out and stretch my legs.

I desperately needed a pit stop. I wanted to actually get out of the car and take some pictures of the scenery instead of doing the, "setting my camera on the dash using the remote timer" or "pulling over to take a picture on the main road."

Check out these lovelies. Just walking into this quaint little bakery is heavenly. The yeasty sugary goodness hits you like a gale-force wind as you walk in.  And it wasn't because I was starving. It's just that good.

I don't know how anybody could walk in there after smelling that goodness and not leave with a donut. They must have a will of iron. Their mouth taped shut? Not a penny to their name? Even if I were broke I'd stop in there and ask if I could wash dishes just so I could have their donuts.

Anyway, this is the one I picked:

Turns out that place makes donuts fresh every morning and let me tell you this one was TASTY. T-A-S-T-Y. Tasty.

I got a honey bun with cream cheese frosting and 2% milk. Perfect combo although I couldn’t finish either of them. It was just too much yeasty goodness.

Did I mention how good it smelled in there? Soooo good, like a real bakery should. Yeasty and bready-like. Almost a sweet dough smell.

The perfect pit stop and the view was spectacular. Green glorious mountains of trees, blue skies and some fluffy white clouds.

This pic doesn't really do it justice. It was beautiful though.

I need some new adjectives other than lovely, beautiful, pretty, etc.

See what I mean about driving through the forest. Trees in front, along the sides and when you look in the mirror trees behind you.

I really do love this.

Got a little bit of rock and trees to my left.

Had this perfect farm on my right. Had to stop to get this pic. Damn if it wasn't idyllic. Seriously, I'd swoon every morning waking up to this view.

Ok. I'm not really a swooner but if I were I'd swoon.

I'm breaking every grammatical rule when I write...run ons, bad punctuation, saying swoon too many times. The grammar police are going to be knocking on my door soon to take me off to grammar jail.

Grammar jail is a place where an old school marm with plastic cat-eye black glasses and an extremely tight hair bun on the top of her head stands in front of you, staring at you with her beady black eyes and a very long wooden ruler. Each time youscrew up she wacks your knuckles with that wooden ruler.

Okay, maybe not but it's a funny visual don't you think?

One more for you.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this post. If you'd like to read more about my PNW adventure click here:

Have a great day!

Jen

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 6: Smith River National Recreation Area

After driving north along Highway 199 thru the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California you leave the park and enter the Smith River National Recreation Area.

This entire drive in and of itself is epic.E-P-I-C. A road warriors dream, unless it's snowing or icy.

It’s a very scenic drive with lots of “twists, turns, curves, drop offs, cliffs, rushing water, etc.”

This drive was different than the Oregon coast drive in that instead of being on a cliff you are driving along the river. So you are at the bottom of the mountain.

When you are driving the mountains spear up in front of you and beside you. It’s like you are driving through the mountains. They are so obvious and present in front of you. They are large, looming and so very green and tall.

I love that feeling of driving in a scenic area like this. The only negative is that it’s hard to pay attention to driving when there is so much to see. AND you HAVE TO pay attention to the road unless you want to hit someone or drive off a cliff.

Luckily there are turn-outs often enough. I made several pit stops because I couldn't really enjoy the scenery navigating the curves so I stopped.

Every pit stop I made was so incredibly beautiful.

It was like I was driving through a canyon of trees. A path cut just for the road-trip driver.

To some this might seem like just a bunch of trees but to me it was a dream. Heavenly.

While you drive this lovely stretch of road there are several spots to stop and see the Smith River in all it's glorious color.

I recommend this drive for the mighty road-warrior. I would do it again in a heartbeat unless it was icy or snowing then I wouldn't brave it. Too dangerous.

Next time I think I'll actually stop and do some hiking along this beautiful stretch of forest.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of my Pacific Northwest Road Trip Journal. If you'd like to see more of my adventures click here:

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 6: Hiouchi Trail: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Along Highway 199 in Northern California is a scenic drive through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It's gorgeous and scenic and makes you want to spend your life in a car driving around.

I chose to stop and hike the Hiouchi Trail because it went along the Smith River for a couple of miles. I thought it would be beautiful and scenic.

It turns out I was right.

The National Park Service says this about the park, "A delightful hike along the pristine turquoise Smith River, this trail provides views of both riparian (near-stream) forest and old-growth redwoods. California bay, tanoak, Douglas-fir, and Pacific madrone abound, while salal, huckleberry, and thimbleberry draw in wildlife during the late summer and fall months. A moderate grade and spectacular views make this trail a favorite among visitors and rangers alike."

The start of the trail is right where the bridge goes over the Smith River. There is a small speck of dirt where you can park your car and hike the trail.

The trail is rated as medium difficulty. In some spots it's flat and easy to walk and other areas it's rocky and steep but it's scenic and beautiful.

Large and small rocks litter the path covered in moss and ferns. It makes the hike fun and interesting. Not to mention several fallen logs along the way.

In fact I found several rocks I could stop and set up my camera on for pictures or to just stop and enjoy the surroundings.

I was rained on for a little bit. It was just a sprinkling though and it made the drippings on the greenery that much neater.

I love the picture on the left, the round circles in the background are blurred water droplets.

To me this looked like some landscaping a person would purposely try to do in their yard but it was completely random in nature. This is why I love hiking so much. The beauty of nature can't be planned. It just happens.

I'm not sure what this is growing inside this fallen log but I thought it was pretty cool. I just don't see this stuff back home in Minnesota.

This spot was particularly fun. You could walk right through this old tree along the path.

As I hiked along the path I could see the incredibly beautiful turquoise waters of the Smith River. It was incredible! Finally I got sick of just looking at it from afar so I found a spot along the trail and hiked through the woods to the river.

The river was low so you could walk through half of the Smith River on these smooth stones.

It was so beautiful walking down along and in the river. The thick pine trees along the river. The clear turquoise water covered in smooth white, black and gray stones in varying sizes and shapes.

I began to notice these towers of stones all along the river bank.

Aren't they cool? As I kept seeing them and all their creativity and gravity-defying stacking, I thought to myself, "I should do one."

Then I thought, "I really want to keep walking so I can go through the grove of Redwoods."

But then I thought, "This is my trip. Why keep walking when I could sit down and make my mark. Leave something behind of me. Something that shows I was here. Something that won't hurt the environment but leaves something of me behind."

So I made this to show I was there. My Rock Cairn. I learned this on google. I didn't know what it was before I made it. I just thought it was cool.

Turns out people make them to mark the path on hiking trails. I made mine to define me on the path and just because it seemed like a fun and creative way to leave my mark.

A couple of things about this tower of rocks that totally shows my personality:

*It's mostly tall and thin.

*I used one large rock as a base. A sturdy base. I knew I needed something large, sturdy and flat to start my pile.

*I went around looking for rocks in various sizes with round yet flat sides.

*I piled it as high as I could. I wanted it as big as I could get it. I could have spent more time on it but I just went with the flow.

I decided to go on my merry way because, after all, I wanted to see the Redwoods. I did get a last glance at this beautiful river. Isn't it sick?

I could have just sat there staring at the gorgeousness all day but I moved on along the path.

Next comes this behemoth. This is actually 3 trees all hooked together that look as one. It's huge!

And then, sadly, I had to leave, because I needed to get to my next destination, Grant's Pass, OR before dark.

I had learned at that point that driving these roads in the dark was wasting the exquisite scenery and a bit dangerous.

Onward!

If you would like to read more about my adventures in the Pacific Northwest click here: PNW. I'll be posting more from my adventures in the upcoming week.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 6: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Along the border of Northern California and Southern Oregon lies the hideaway-drive-thru Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Literally you drive through it on Highway 199. It's beautiful even during the winter rain.

I'm so glad I added this to my trip. Originally I was going to drive down to the "Drive-thru Redwoods Park" but it was so far out of the way that I decided to nix that and found this park. It was perfect for my trip. I wanted to turn northeast at Crescent City, California and drive to I5 in Grants Pass, OR. This park fit the bill to a tee.

I drove south on Highway 101 to Crescent City then headed Northwest and met up with Highway 199 which went right through the Redwoods.

Here's a snippet of the park map. (linked above)

There are several pitstops along the way where you can pull off the road and go hiking. One of my stops was the Amelia Earhart Memorial Grove.

I encountered huge downed reddish trees, ferns, and moss-covered trees.

One of my next pitstops was going down Walker Road to a campground.

Let me just say that driving down this one lane gravel road that had been rained on for awhile was not fun. It was ladden with huge thick ruts, mud up past my ankles, open water and treacherous non-existent shoulders.

A couple of times I met an oncoming vehicle and thought...I'm going to pull over toward the side to avoid hitting this guy and I'm going to get stuck with this rental car. Then what? Hopefully somebody has a tow rope and can pull me out.

I also had another fear while driving this tore-up road. That I would tear off my oil pan while bottoming out going thru the ruts that lined the road. Those ruts seemed like they were made by a drunk row crop farmer plowing the field for planting.

I pretty much decided, once I found a place to turn around, that I was not going any further down this road...as cool as the scenery was. I wasn't in the mood to either get stuck or wreck my rental.

So...onward. Kind of a bummer though.

I meandered along the highway trying to drive, stare and navigate all at once while looking through the haze of rain and fog.

Pit STOP!

I loved this stump. From far away it looked like it was just covered with moss and ferns but up close (on the right) it had this cool looking plant? moss? fern?

Anyway, it was neat.

I'll leave you with this. The common "Caution: Mountain Lion" sign I saw all over the place.

There are mountain lions so be wary. I know I was. I was honestly more scared of those mountain lions than I ever am of the bear I could encounter in my own home state. Bears will leave you alone unless you come between them and their young, then you're in trouble.

But Mountain Lions are a different story. They would stalk you for dinner. Bears won't. At least not the black bears in my neck of the woods (Minnesota).

 

 

 

 

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 6: Arch Rock, Brookings, OR

Arch Rock in the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor near Brookings Oregon was so incredibly beautiful. That entire stretch of Highway 101 is just a feast for the eyes. It's like the Buffet at Caesar's Palace, you just want to circle the entire stretch first and pick your favorites. The problem is that it all looks good.

This is how I see this stretch of road. The corridor is a buffet of scenic goodness. A photographer's dream. and I loved every minute of it despite being rained on most of the time.

p.s. I really love this picture despite the not-so-great coloring. I love how I was able to frame the coast using the trees. It makes me feel like I'm glimpsing at something that is special. The coast sits cozily within the frame of forest.

You can hike down to Harris Beach if you want to. I didn't quite make it that far but I did do a little hiking. (I had a place I needed to get to by the end of the day and had quite a ways to go yet so unfortunately I had to cut my trip a little short.)

I love these little wooden bridges they build over the creeks (pronounced "cricks" if you live in MN - LOL). They are cute and keep me from traversing a stream. Be careful though, when wet, they are slippery.

I almost biffed it running back to my spot here to get a picture.

Note: When alone, set camera on the edge of the bridge to get a picture of you in the back. You have to put something under the camera to lift it up though or it'll just take a picture of the railings.

This forest was a wonderland. Lush and filled with greenery. Plants, ferns, moss. I felt like I was in the rainforest again, almost. It was close.

The plant picture on the right is one of my favorites. The color was that green. I didn't adjust anything. The plant was that vibrant and colorful and with the moss underneath it, it just looks cool to me.

This is what it looks like while walking on the path. There are wood chips and pine needles on the skinny path and grass, moss, ferns and all manner of green plants along the edging. It's so cool.

There were some slightly steep areas along this trail next to some rocky cliffs. It was fun and a little dangerous. As you can see on the right there was the steep wall of rock and a nice drop off to the right. The path is really secure so I never worried it just always made me tred carefully.

p.s. You might think that this doesn't look dangerous and it really isn't. I just like to be careful being that I'm on my own and there is no cell service here and not many people out wandering the forest like me. So it's a safety thing.

Another steep part of the hill.

Some moss on the rocks and a little waterfall along this part of the path.

I love the leaf picture on the right. It shows how incredibly green it was there and wet. The leaves are soaked and just dripping with water.

Thanks for reading this post. If you'd like to read more about my adventures in the Pacific Northwest please click here for the summary page with links to all of my posts "PNW Road Trip".

 

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 6: Edition 3: Cave Rock

Driving along the Cape Sebastian Scenic Corridor was in a word "Scenic". I probably overuse that word a lot but it's true. In every sense. Scenic. So much so that driving down the cliff on toward the beach I HAD TO stop. I saw a turnout and just pulled over.

Despite the gray cloudy moorish skies and the constant rain I didn't care. I put on my raincoat and headed out to explore the rocks and the beach.

Driftwood, small stones and large rocks littered this beach. It was fun to walk around and explore looking for sea life.

That couple down there had the same idea as I did. Check out the surroundings and go for a walk.

Tide was starting to come in so I couldn't explore the big rocks as much as I would have liked.

I love how the moss grows on the rocks. It gives it that enchanted forest mossy look.

I don't know about you but sometimes when I'm walking along I like to just stop, sit down on a piece of driftwood and look out to the ocean. Smell the salty air and feel the crisp breeze across my face and through my hair.

It's peaceful and restorative. The beach will do that to you. Make you stop and take a breath and just enjoy. Relax and ponder your circumstances.

I'm pretty sure at that moment I was thinking, "I'm so glad I took this trip. I don't care that I'm alone. It's so much fun and I'm loving every minute of it even though I"m getting rained on most everyday."

FYI - It rains a lot. Not hard rain just soft and slow rain. I don't believe it slows anyone down around there. I know it didn't slow me down. It's the kind of rain where you need just a raincoat and a willingness to deal with it. Easy peesy.

Thanks for reading this post and if you'd like to read more about my PNW adventure click here "PNW Road Trip"