Northern California and Southern Oregon Coastline

Last month Trudy and I flew to San Francisco and drove north to Aracata, California to visit with her sister, Linda. For two glorious weeks we explored northern California and the shoreline of southern Oregon.

Trudy and Linda experiencing a huge

spruce tree in the Cape Perpetua Scenic

Area south of Yachats, Oregon

REDWOOD TREES are ginormous and are a 'you-will-always-remember-it' experience!!!

Bob feeling very humbled next to a redwood in the Prairie
Creek Redwoods State Park south of Orick, CA

Arcata Community Forest

Some ferns grow head high.

Elk in the Priairie Creek Redwoods State Park

ROCKY SHORELINES of northern California and Oregon

We spent two days enjoying the Bandon, Oregon area. I could
have easily spent two months walking the sandy beaches,
marveling at the rock sea stacks in the Pacific.

Humbolt Lagoon State Park

Unnamed beach at the mouth of the Redwood Creek, Orick

California

Some beaches have huge collections of driftwood. This is one

of the more appealing 'houses' that will stand until the next

big storm.

Probably because I am a native Floridian, I am fascinated by

rocks. This very cool large chunk of stone has beautiful veins

of quartz.

The streaks of quarts mirrored the crashing waves of the Pacific.

Yep ... this is the same rock that I encountered on my return

walk  back up the beach. This is a Western Gull with a red 

streak on its thick yellow bill.

This nearby sandy beach is speckled with billions of polished

stones in a myriad of colors ranging in size from tiny pebbles

to silver dollars.

This little beauty was on a hard to find beach in the McVay 

Rock State Recreation Area near Brooking, Oregon.

McVay had the most amazing diversity of

seaweed along the shoreline!

At the beach adjacent to Stone Lagoon, Humbolt Lagoon State 

Park, waves splashed over ten feet high over the rocks.

This is the first of 5 images showing a wave surging up a

narrow channel in the rocky shoreline at Cape Perpetua.

2 of 5 series

3 of 5 series

4 of 5 series

5 of 5 series

A spray of white foam exited through 'Spouting Horn', 'a blow 

hole in the rocks at Cape Perpetua.

Driftwood formation at McVay Beach.

We visited Jesse, Linda's son at Slide Ranch, near the Muir

Woods National Monument. I call this 'Seal Rock', viewed

from the Muir Beach Overlook, just north of San Francisco.

Rocks smoothed by wave action, Slide Ranch.

This image, also at Slide Ranch  is the last of my Rocky 

shoreline series

SANDY BEACHES are the most common in California, even along most of the northern California coastline.

Early morning view from the Moonstone County Park, between

Aracata and Trinidad, California. 

Agate Beach in the Patrick's Point State Park, north of Trinidad

California

I returned several times to walk for miles along the sandy 

beaches and dunes of Mad River Beach, a short drive from 

Aracata, California. 

This Purple Sail Jellyfish is closely related to the Portuguese

man of war but has no stinging tentacles. Samoa Dunes 

Recreation Area, Aracta, California.

Dungeness crab shell

Morning sun over high dunes at Mad River Beach.

Gold Beach, Oregon

The last night of our Oregon road trip was spent at Gold Beach,

Oregon. We boarded a jet in San Francisco for the flight back to 

Tallahassee the next day.