Arch Rock
We welcomed the sunshine and blue skies this morning as we explored the coast north of Brookings. This is an area rich in sea stacks and long, wide beaches.
Our first stop was Arch Rock. The trail led out onto a headland with gorgeous scenery on all sides. To the north was a small bay with huge sea stacks covered with pine trees. To the west was Arch Rock, which gave its name to the area. To the south were a group of smaller sea stacks and rocks that dotted the area close to shore.
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Meyers Beach
North of Arch Rock, Meyers Beach stretched along Highway 101 for several miles. We stopped to look at the area from the main turnout to decide where we wanted to shoot. Two guys rode up on their American Chopper-worthy motorcycles and parked behind us. They each had a custom-built fiberglass trailer that looked like a hot rod. I talked to one of the riders, and they make the trailers in 9 models. He said their customers get treated like rock stars wherever they go.
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We drove to the northern end of Meyers Beach to photograph the early evening light on the sea stacks. Shortly after we arrived, the fog started rolling off Cape Sebastian and onto the beach behind us. I walked about a mile down the beach in the opposite direction to explore the sea stacks and to marvel at how wide the beach was. The beach was nearly flat for at least a hundred yards as I looked seaward. It made for great reflections. It's too bad the lighting was so bad. I nearly reached the highway bridge when I saw another arch rock. I'd love to see the waves crashing through the arch at high tide in a storm. But today, it was hazy and the lighting was all wrong.
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Turnout Before Arch Rock
On the way back toward camp, we found the turnout that was recommended as a better viewpoint than Arch Rock. They were right. We couldn't see Arch Rock from the viewpoint, but the close-up view of the small bay with its sea stacks was amazing. We could even see the sea stacks from Meyers Beach in the distance. This is a much better morning shot when everything will be front-lit.
Natural Bridges
Natural Bridges was a pleasant surprise. It was on our list of stops, but it was much better than I had hoped. It was only a short walk to the viewpoint that looked nearly straight down to two natural bridges in a ridge crossing a small bay. The lighting was all wrong this afternoon, but the potential for a good shot tomorrow morning was obvious.
While we were photographing the natural bridges, Carol noticed some people under the trees just above one of the natural bridges. As we watched, a woman left the relative safety of the ridge above the larger natural bridge and walked what appeared to be a knife-blade edge to stand above the second natural bridge. One misstep on that ridge would have been fatal. She was nuts! If you look VERY carefully at the image below, the tiny yellow dot above the left natural bridge is actually a person.
When we climbed the last hill as we drove back to camp, the fog rolled in and our day of shooting was ended. There was no sunset tonight but after last night, we certainly didn't complain.
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