Cannon Beach to Heceta Head, Oregon. 6th November 2018. (Trip summary and links to posts.)
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We are driving down the Oregon coast, but first we have a five-second video that I meant to put in the previous post.
Multnomah Falls.
I thought I was taking an image, resting my camera on the balustrade. When I took it up, I realised I was taking a video. Before posting, I tried cropping the end but decided it was more complete and more comical with the balustrade. It does show the power of the falls though.
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Now we’re travelling south down the coast of Oregon, from Cannon Beach to Heceta Head, on the next day after seeing the waterfall.
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View south from Cannon Beach.
I remember that on leaving Cannon Beach, where we had stayed the night, going to a large flat viewpoint that I suspect was Silver Point Interpretative Lookout. Early morning sea mist.
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Haystack Rock.
You might remember that towards the end of the previous post there was a misty telephoto coast view with a large rock and smaller rocks in the distant coast. This is that rock, Haystack Rock, in the clear morning light.
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A lone fisherman trying his luck in the sea.
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He nearly got caught out by a wave though.
Lucky there were no tsunamis that morning.
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Views from Neahkahnie Mountain.
We are now about five kilometres (three miles) down the coast from Cannon Beach, at a viewpoint on Neahkahnie Mountain.
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A sign here said that until the early twentieth century, the beach was the road along the coast. But when people got to Neahkahnie Mountain, there was no route by the sea so they had to go over it.
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A view with some mist and reflection off the sea.
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Closing in, a different composition from the same spot.
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Closing in further, with quite a different aspect.
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View from Cape Meares.
This is now two hours south of Cannon Beach, and I’ve detoured from the main road to get here..
I have visited places, for example in Antigua and I think Jamaica, where multinational resorts acquire land and seal off beaches for private use while giving no quarter to the interests or welfare of locals. Oregon has a long tradition of conserving coastline, including the designation of shoreline as a coastal highway in 1913, the Beach Act of 1967 guaranteeing public access to beaches, and Statewide Planning Goal 17: Coastal Shorelands establishing a planning framework for coastal areas. Consequently, while it is far from a wild coast, Oregon has a coastline much less commercialised than would otherwise be the case.
The Beach Act of 1967 was a response to an event on Cannon Beach. The owner of a beachfront hotel dragged logs into position to try to claim a section of the beach exclusively for his guests. That led to legislation ensuring that public access was preserved.
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Light filtering through Cape Meares trees.
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The Cape Meares lighthouse.
This is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon but it does sit on a cliff.
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Small island off Cape Meares.
That could be a cave half-way up. perhaps there’s someone living there with a long fishing line.
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Oregon Coast View.
This is a little further south from Meares Point, from Symons State Scenic Viewpoint at Oceanside.
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Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge.
From the same viewpoint, the rocks are from left to right Storm Rock, Finley Rock and Seal rock.
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Small round island on a silver sea.
Again from the same viewpoint, I can’t identify it on Google Earth, perhaps this is looking north towards Cape Meares..
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I think this must be Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
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Marina at Newport.
(Three-image stitched panorama).
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Seal Rocks (from the south).
In the middle there’s a person, I think a woman, photographing the gulls. She must have been moving very slowly for them not to have flown away.
(This is of course not to be confused with Seal Rocks in Australia that I covered in 1987 while photographing lighthouses).
(Another stitched panorama).
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Cape Cove.
Another half-hour and 45 kilometres later, we are above and inland from the Heceta Head Lighthouse, looking across Cape Cove.
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Cape Cove.
The same view but a much wider angle.
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Heceta Head Lighthouse Cottage in late afternoon light.
The lighthouse was commissioned in 1894 and so was this keeper’s cottage. In Australia there were always three keepers working eight-hour shifts (and with their families) and this was the case here too. There was originally two cottages. A similar one to the left of this one was the Head Keeper’s cottage which was dismantled in 1940. This one was a duplex for the 2nd and 3rd keepers. It’s now a B&B. You can stay here for between $US417 and $US621 for a night ($A600 to $A900, £310 to £460). Perhaps some readers have occasionally stayed in cheaper places, but there is wifi at no extra charge (compliments of CSIRO in Australia).
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The Beach at Cape Cove.
Here we are on the beach with eight of the local residents, and another one and a human in the distant background.
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Reflections on the Beach at low tide.
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A couple communing by the sea.
It is getting very close to sunset. The images are in chronological order but the lighting varies greatly according to the angle to the sun.
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Heceta Head Lighthouse.
This image and the next one are ten minutes later and the perspective of the lighthouse is different from the ones on the beach. I think they must have been taken at the Lighthouse viewpoint just to the south of Cape Cove.
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A closer view.
The small buildings beside the lighthouse are not residences. The one attached to the lighthouse, described as a “barn” has a chimney though. Clearly there was a fire and perhaps a small kitchen too. The other two were kerosene oil storage buildings, for the lighthouse’s lamp. They were duplicated in case one burned down. Originally, access from the rest of the World was limited. The light was encased in a first-order Chance Brothers fresnel lens. There would also presumably have been a clockwork mechanism that turned the lens and the light. That would have had to be wound up each hour or two.
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The edge of the water in the dying light.
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Sunset on the Oregon Coast.
This one, the previous one and the next one are ten minutes later again. We are looking along the coast south of Heceta Head, likely from Baker Beach Viewpoint.
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And the sun has now gone down.
(From here, we still had ninety minutes or so to drive to our accommodation in Bandon.)
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