On our way to Crescent City, CA and the Redwoods National and State Parks we passed a billboard advertising a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum somewhere along the southern Oregon coast. The ad pictured several freakish-looking humans. It got me to thinking, why go to a museum? A simple drive around the Pacific Northwest allows you to encounter more strange beings than you can imagine for free. In fact there are so many, I wonder if we are the freaks. It's getting nuttier everywhere but, this area seems to be outpacing most places based on my simple observations.
Photographing the gigantic coast redwoods is not easy. Trying to create images that do justice to trees that are 15-20 feet in diameter and nearly 300' feet tall is challenging.
Along the way, we saw numerous elk including this old bull with his harem of at least 20 cows, aka female elk.
We also passed another huge Paul Bunyan statue standing with his blue ox, Babe. This statue was big, much bigger than the one we saw in Michigan earlier this year. Paul's base weighs more than 800,000 pounds and Paul himself weighs 30,000 pounds. Babe is over 30 feet tall and also weighs more than 30,000 pounds. I suspect it would take a lot of peaceful protesters to topple statues this large.
The marshes at Arcata, CA were teeming with shore birds and I was able to capture this photograph of one of my favorite birds... the Long-billed Curlew.
Out on the water, this Pigeon Guillemot was fleeing from seagulls with its hard-earned dinner.
And, this Common Murre was just bobbing along in the late afternoon sun.
And, finally, this Least Sandpiper also seemed to be enjoying some sunshine after a day of clouds, rain and fog.
The lighthouse at Crescent City was inaccessible because of the high tide covering the access road. So, I settled for this distant shot from across the bay.
Happily, we found a working man's restaurant across the street from our hotel where I handled a large piece of double chocolate fudge cake and a couple scoops of ice cream. I'll admit I could have only eaten 4 or 5 of those. If only I had the time.
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