Not exactly "beaching" it like this southern girl is used to.
The high never got out of the 50's with a strong wind and fog that couldn't decide if it wanted to stay or go.
The Oregon coast is wild, untamed, scary. With it's pop up logs and sneaker waves, better not turn your back on the ocean ...it is not your friend.
The hunt begins to find that oh so perfect perch to listen to the sound of the surf. Started just south of Florence and the mouth of the Siuslaw (sigh-you-slaw)River. The beginning of the Oregon Dunes area. Ever tried climbing a sand dune? I mean the ones like you see in the movies? This one was about as high as a two story house. No problem. I've been working out a lot lately. I'll just head up to the top and check out the other side for our possibilities.
Ha!!!! Climbing in sand is no easy matter. About half way up I finally said "uncle". Okay, I can do this, I'll just pace myself 10 on and 10 off. By the time I made it I realized there was no way I was going to climb back up again especially toting junk but I did get some great pics.
By the way, if you're up for it, you can try sandboarding (like snowboarding).
A little wiser now we head north- away from the dunes (by the way these are the same dunes that provided creative inspiration for the science fiction book and movie by that name).
Finally found a spot. A little park service parking lot ($6 please). We can sit on the top of the cliff with the bushes to help block the wind or walk down the path to the beach.
The beach is flat and goes on forever. Not another person is in sight.
Checking out the tidal pools in the rocks we find thousands of mussels, brown-striped and black. Some so tiny they are no larger than a dime. The anemones are like filled balloons when in the water but out of water they are deflated. These are some of the inhabitants of the intertidal zone. They are hardy. They live a double life. They are water animals and must be able to survive with the full force of the tide trying to uproot them from their homes as well as land animals in that time period when it's low tide. The mussels amaze me with their resilience.
Back up top, we bundle up, get in our little land cove to spend a couple of hours reading, writing and just being. We watch a fog bank roll in and sit off the coast.
Fog is a cloud that touches the surface of the earth. Fog happens when moisture condenses around particles.
Sea fog forms as water condenses around particles of salt from sea spray. Kelp also releases particles of iodine which become nuclei for water to condense around.
When the pressure of the air above the fog bank is high the fog gets "squashed" which is what has caused the fog to look the way it does in the photo above.
There are many kinds of fog- ice fog, hail fog, valley fog, hill fog, guara fog to name a few.
Some areas with scarce natural rainfall (Lima, Peru) even extract moisture from fog to use for drinking, cleaning ,etc. by using "fog nets".
After seeing it, sitting in it and driving through it, when I say "my head's in a fog" I really relate.
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