A Change in Scenery

September 9, 2013 - Monday
Today is moving day. We traveled to Port Orford, about 70 miles down the coast. We arrived about noon and got set up. The campground is small, maybe 30 sites. Its called Port Orford RV Village and seems very nice with amenities we've been missing; like WiFi and full hook-up. Owners really take an interest in our being here. Get this, we pay on leaving. We have never experienced that.

Since we had time, we visited the Coast Guard Life Saving Station here that they have restored, well mostly restored. There is a museum telling the history of Port Orford and many things from the USCG personnel stationed here. The picture is of their self righting 36 ft life boat. Note the rail dolly. These were deployed into the water down a set of rails out of the boat house.

The scenery has changed as you can see in this next picture. The dunes are gone. Rocks pop up off shore, but the shore rock is a lighter color. It looks like a metamorphic rock of some sort, something we will need to learn more about. It is scenic don't you think?

September 8, 2013 - Sunday
The plan was to arise early for low tide and head to Sunset Beach to do tide pooling. Well, it was so foggy you could only see about 75 yards out and Sunset Beach was certainly not what we were hoping for tide pools. They were non-existent. However there were some cool things poking up. Like tree roots. Yes, those green, spider-like structures are tree roots, presumably from trees either knocked over in storms or possibly logging stumps. As the second picture shows, even rocks with barnacles are nifty.

We were in search of a beach with dunes as a backdrop, but one we did not have to climb a dune to get there. We finally found some at Umpqua Beach, but with the fog you still couldn't see them. We walked the beach for a while. The winds were strong, on shore, and cold.

It turns out there is an eco battle raging over these dunes In the early 1900s the beach was eroding significantly. Remember the notes earlier about the lighthouse falling into the river? So they imported and planted beach grass, problem solved. The beach stopped eroding and the dunes stopped marching inland. The problem is that now the grass forms a stable "pre-dune" and between it and the big dunes, a quiet area fosters tree growth. Now critters like the Sand Plover, that rely on the open sand area, have lost habitat. So now they want to plow over the grass to restore the dune. Our question is; what will happen to the trees, roads, and businesses that are at risk of being covered or undermined like before?