One Way Up

The first morning I awoke at my brother's place at the Oregon Coast was a day marked by perfect weather.

Seemed that was a recurring theme. So warm for autumn, and none of the characteristic rain that makes it so lush out there.

So, I took my cup of coffee out the back yard that overlooked Devil's Lake, and snapped my first few photos of the place. The serenity of the early morning before the sunrise:



And waited for the sun to clear the hills to the east:



The prior day, we had traveled north along the coast. On this day, we headed south, our destination being lunch in Newport. We drove along highway 101, famous for its many twists and turns, and it beautiful views of the coastline:









One stop was at a small island, very close to the mainland, with an oft photographed tree. We descended down the hill, to find that the water was low enough we could walk out onto the island. I photographed from both perspectives, mainland with reflections in the water:



and on the island, directly below the tree:



As we shot on the island, the water had continued to rise (it should not be remarkable how fast this can change, given the enormity of the Pacific Ocean, but it was indeed impressive.) We had to navigate along unstable rocks, trying to keep from landing in the waters.

I took a deliberate course; the prior day we had talked about a woman who had come to the coast and underestimated how a misstep on the rocks and broke her ankle. The rocks that were exposed were few and far between, and it seemed it took forever to cross back to the mainland.

But we did return, and without soaking our shoes through in seawater.

And we continued south...