Travelogues
2019 Oregon Trip

Thursday, June 27

Tolovana Beach

All the weather forecasts predicted rain for today and since it rained last night, we had little hope for any good shooting today. It was a very pleasant surprise to wake up to blue skies and sunshine to the east. We had a very quick breakfast and drove to Tolovana Beach where we shot last night. We wanted to shoot morning light on Haystack Rock and the Needles. By the time we drove to Tolovana, the clouds had rolled in from the east, but it looked like the sun would move into an open area and we might have a few minutes of good light.

As we hiked from the parking lot down the beach toward Haystack Rock, the sun appeared from behind a band of clouds. The tide was receding, so we had lots of very shallow water to create wonderful reflections of the formations. The golden light was long gone, but it was a nice morning to join all the others on the beach. The sun peeked in and out of the clouds for about an hour before it finally succumbed to the building clouds. We packed up our gear and walked back to the parking lot--constantly glancing up at the threatening clouds. As we walked, we noticed the locals were paying NO attention to the clouds and showing no concern for rain. They were obviously used to this weather and knew it wasn't going to rain despite the ominous clouds.

Haystack Rock and Needles

We drove back to camp and had lunch. The updated forecast called for partly cloudy skies until 9:00 when it was supposed to rain. We hoped for another chance to shoot sunset, but a rain shower in the early evening put an end to that hope. The afternoon off gave us a chance to do some maintenance stuff around camp and to work on our images.