Low Tide at Heceta

Low Tide at Heceta

By Mike Garofalo

At the Edges of the West
Highway 101 and 1
Northwest Pacific Coast

Four Days in Grayland

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works

Hecate in Mythology

Best Tidepools in Oregon

Heceta Head Lighthouse

"Heceta Head was a spot of frequent fishing and hunting by the American Indian tribes that populated the area. Heceta Head is part of the Siuslaw traditional lands, known in their language as ɫtúwɪs. They hunted sea lions in the area and gathered sea bird eggs from the offshore rocks. It was also the site of a legend—the Animal People built a great stone wall, which is now the cliffs, and tricked the Grizzly Bear brothers to their deaths there. In 1888, white settlers moved into the area and claimed 164 acres of the surrounding land."

25 Steps and Beyond:
The Collected Works of Mike Garofalo

Photos from the Internet and Facebook:

           

Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast: An Illustrated Guide to Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.  By Eugene N. Kozloff.  University of Washington, 1983, 378 pages.  A technical scientific presentation.

The New Beachcomber's Guide to the Pacific Northwest.  By J. Duane Sept. Harbor Publishing, 2019, 416 pages.

Seashore of the Pacific Northwest.  By Ian Sheldon.  Lone Pine, 1998, 192 pages.

The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.  By Cynthia Barnett.  W.W. Norton, 2021, 432 pages.

                    

• Acorn and Gooseneck Barnacles
• Limpets
• California Mussels
• Hermit Crabs
• Chitons
• Sea Stars (more commonly known as Starfish)
• Sea Cucumbers
• Anemones
• Sea Slugs
• Turban Snails
• Purple Sea Urchins
• Various Fish Species
• Purple Shore Crabs
• Kelp and Sea Palms

       

Tidepools

Tidepools near Sunset Bay State Park
Charleston, Coos Bay,
Central Oregon Coast

Hecate Head

Photographs from the Internet:

Stepping Over Epiphanies

Stepping Over Epiphanies

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Affecting all the molecules in me
the pull of the moon and sea
feeling the call to walk the shore
Smiled, opened the door

Tides and time sent signals to me
to step nimbly over epiphanies
seen flipped over in the turning sands
Surprised, opened my hands

Waiting for nobody but me
a fleck of cold fire
flung out on this fleck of space
Sang out, loved this place

Shore pines paint a background scene
stubby short trees
swaying gently in the salty breeze
Unruffled, I found tranquility

Stunned by the crisp clean colors
savoring the scents of the sea
enchanted by the incessant singing surf
Awakened, a mystical reverie

Pointing to the ineffable realization of
insights known to me alone
Erupted up from our sensory reality
Profound, not foreknown

Such awakenings come and go
sometimes fast or sometimes slow
unpredictable visons playing peekaboo
Pausing, not thinking too

Slogging up and down the dunes
breathing hard on que
one step up, a half-step back
Stopping, quite a view

Tip toeing over bull kelp strands
stepping on broken shells
avoiding the driftwood piles ever moving
Listening, a foghorn knells

A friendly dog off-leash comes to me
seeking a gentle pat and pet
desiring a kind human face to see
Laughing, she was wet

My granddaughter and I once walked
beside a Washington dune
not very long ago it seemed to us
Remembered, gone too soon

 

The poem above "Stepping Over Epiphanies," is one of dozens of my poems
found on my webpage:

At the Edges of the West

https://www.egreenway.com/mpgss/shortpoemsmpg9sea2.htm

Travels on US Highway 101 and 1

Memories of Pacific Coast Places
West Coast Snapshots & Snippets
Delightful Coastal Spur Roads

Docu-Poem, Haiku, Short Poems, Photos,
Quatrians, Graphics, Concrete Poems

By Michael P. Garofalo

Vancouver, Washington

Nehalem Bay State Park

Today, I am driving from Vancouver to Manzanita, Oregon.  I will be Yurt camping for four days at Nehalem Bay State Park. I have camped here many times. I will post photos and comments when I return on next Thursday afternoon.  I expect rain, wind, fog, and cool weather.  Likely to see very few campers in this fine park.

Here is my post from January 2022 from Nehalem Bay:

This park is quite large with a long sandy beach, sand dunes, shore pine forest, bay views, and many hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails and roads.  The park is over 4 miles long.  

There are 310 campsites in this Park.  There were only 10 trailers/RV campers, no tent campers, and 3 yurt campers.  Thus, the Park was 95% empty of any campers this cold rainy winter day.  I enjoy the privacy, the quiet, the solitude.  

Fog, drizzling, misting, low clouds, cold, light rain ... 

Today, I plan to drive through Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway Beach and Garibaldi.  I will stop at many places in these areas.  

I walked around Barview Jetty County Park near Garibaldi.  Crews were working on the north jetty entrance to Tillamook Bay.  

I visited Manhattan Beach Wayside Oregon State Park.  

I walked on a wood boardwalk through a swamp old growth cedar forest near Rockaway Beach, and along the beach and bay.  

I ate at the Big Wave restaurant in Manzanita twice: halibut fish tacos for lunch, and pan-fried razor clams for dinner... both were excellent!    

Plenty of restaurants, gift shops, services, library, market, and cafes in Manzanita and Rockaway Beach were open.  Nice homes in Manzanita.  

What to Do at Night?

Sunrise at 8 am and sunset at 5 pm.  15 hours of Darkness.  [Photography at night?]

Reading books, cellphone Kindle, and writing on my ASUS laptop.  Reading comfortably at night in my yurt:

The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.  By Cynthia Barnett.  W.W. Norton, 2021, 432 pages.  VSCL. 

Nehalem Bay and Manzanita Local Information            

 Nehalem Bay State Park     Images    Google Map

Nehalem Bay State Park Wikipedia

Manzanita City   Population 400.  Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images    

Explore Manzanita

Manzanita Visitor Center

Manzanita   Restaurants    "You can enjoy a farm-to-table experience at several local restaurants;A Mighty Thai, Big Wave Cafe, Bread & Ocean, and Neahkahnie Bistro just to name a few. Each serves seasonal, regional items year-round.  The area also features more conventional food offerings, including pizza, Mexican cuisine, casual fine dining, pies, pastries, contemporary and old-fashioned candy, ice cream and seafood."

Travel Options

Have a Great Time at the Beach

Neahkahnie Mountain   Hiking trails to peak.

Neahkahnie Mountain  "This peak is an inspiring place, where the Tillamook tribe believed their most powerful god resided. In fact, the name Neahkahnie comes from their words Ne ("place of") and Ekahnie {Ekone] ("supreme deity")."  

Four Days in Grayland   By Michael P. Garofalo.   Camping and travel adventures in the Pacific Northwest. 

Nehalem Valley Historical Society Museum in Manzanita

Nehalem City   Population 400.   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images 

Nehalem Restaurants

Nehalem River     116 miles long.  Images

Nehalem Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Wheeler 

Oswald West State Park Wikipedia

Oswald West State Park

Lower Columbia River: Astoria to Portland, Ilwaco to Vancouver

Long Beach Peninsula  

Wheeler   Population 400.     Images   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

I have camped in a Yurt at Nehalem Bay State Park five times in the last two decades. 

Yurt Camping in the Coastal Northwest     By Michael P. Garofalo

Nehalem Spit Trail

Fishing, crabbing, walking beach dunes and shore, kite flying, river side exploring, mountain trails hiking, kayaking. 

Rockaway Beach   Population 1,400.      Images    Google Map

Rockaway Beach Travel  

Rockaway Beach Restaurants

Rockaway Beach Old Growth Cedar Preserve   Raised boardwalk trail, 1.1 mile, into old growth cedar forest.  Bog and forest. 

Rockaway Big Tree Boardwalk  Includes the largest cedar tree in Oregon. 

All Trails

Lake Lytle Images

Lake Lytle Pier

Bar View Jetty Beach Walk  

Rockaway Beach Travel    Travel II

Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

The following photographs were obtained from the Internet:

Rockaway Beach

Lake Lytle, Rockaway Beach

Manzanita Beach

Boardwalk in Old Growth Cedar Forest

Cliffs above Manzanita, Highway 101

Nehalem Bay

Beachcombing near Bandon, Oregon

Raining all last night and most of the day. 
Cold and windy.  Heavily overcast gray day;
until the late afternoon.  

Explored the Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park areas of Oregon today.  

From my Yurt campsite, you can drive a mile or so out to the parking area at the north jetty.  The Coquille River enters the Pacific Ocean at this jetty.  There are many stone and earthen dykes far along both sides of the Coquille River to control flooding.  There are extensive tidal marshes extending farther inland.  

Here are three photos in the areas north of the jetty.  Lots of driftwood on the beach shores from high King Tides.  To the north, miles and miles of rolling big sand dunes covered with grasses, shrubs, and trees fed by high precipitation.  To the east, the Bandon Bridge, tidal marshes, and the coastal range.  

Bandon March National Wildlife Refuge.  A wide and long tidal marsh land-water environment. Tidal Marshland   I enjoyed a dine view of the tidal marsh lands near Rocky Point County Park, a few miles north of Bandon.  This year, from Bandon all the way notheast via road 42S to Coquille City, 30 miles, major flooding of the entire area was widespread and impressive in the fog.

Coquille River Photos

Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon     Photos

Bandon Bridge Photos

Bandon Photos

Bandon City - Information  

South Jetty State/County Park

Four Days in Grayland  

The Jetty as Metaphor
The Sandwich
Anjali Mudra and Bowing
Gassho, Tai Chi Chuan Salute

Waves of Reflections at the North Jetty
By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

In 2023, I will be studying the books by Deng Ming-Dao.

Taoism

Bandon, Oregon, Discoveries

Explored the Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park areas of Oregon today. It was sunny, cool, and not windy.  Started to cloud up in the evening.    

From my Yurt campsite, you can drive a mile or so out to the parking area at the north jetty.  The Coquille River enters the Pacific Ocean at this jetty.  There are many stone and earthen dykes far along both sides of the Coquille River to control flooding.  There are extensive tidal marshes extending farther inland.  

Here are three of my photographs in the areas north of the jetty.  Lots of driftwood on the beach shores from high King Tides.  To the north, miles and miles of rolling big sand dunes covered with grasses, shrubs, and trees fed by high precipitation.  To the east, the Bandon Bridge, tidal marshes, and the coastal range.  

Bandon March National Wildlife Refuge.  A wide and long tidal marsh land-water environment. Tidal Marshland   I enjoyed a dine view of the tidal marsh lands near Rocky Point County Park, a few miles north of Bandon.  This year, from Bandon all the way notheast via road 42S to Coquille City, 30 miles, major flooding of the entire area was widespread and impressive in the fog.

Coquille River Photos

Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon     Photos

Bandon Bridge Photos

Bandon Photos

Bandon City - Information  

South Jetty State/County Park

Four Days in Grayland  

Here are more photographs from others:

The Jetty as Metaphor
The Sandwich
Anjali Mudra and Bowing
Gassho, Tai Chi Chuan Salute

Waves of Reflections at the Bandon Jetty
By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

In 2023, I will be studying the books by Deng Ming-Dao.

Taoism

Cliffs by the Pacific Shores

Memories of Pacific Coast Places, Snippets and Snapshots

                                                            By Michael P. Garofalo

"The endless High Steep Cliffs all along the Sea—

striking, dramatic, and dangerous to me.

Haystack Rock, Morro Rock, Three Arch Rocks;

Islands, Sea-Stacks and Big Rocks alone.

Neahkahnie Mountain, basalt dome,

Throne of the Great Spirit, God's Home.

On Cone Mountain, the Los Vigilantes Oscuros,

hide in the twisted trees;

wanting to see but not to be seen.

Mary's Peak, Tcha Timanwings, 

Kalapuya People's Place of Spiritual Beings.

Cruising on 1, along the steep cliffs

near Bixby Bridge - Iconic Cali at the Edge. 

Mt. Ranier, Tacoma, Mother of Waters,

a glacier topped stratavolcano,

spewing lava for a million years.

Tacoma:

Even Before the Trees Came,

Home to Thunderbirds.

Home before HumanKinds."

Memories of Pacific Coast Places, Snippets and Snapshots

  By Michael P. Garofalo

Travels on US Highway 101 & 1
West Coast Snapshots & Snippets

Haiku, Short Poems, Photos, Quatrains
Graphics, Docu-Poems, Concrete Poems

Memories of Pacific Coast Places

Memories of Pacific Coast Places
Travels on US Highway 101 & 1
West Coast Snapshots & Snippets

Haiku, Short Poems, Photos
Graphics, Concrete Poems

By Michael P. Garofalo

"Loaded Logging Trucks Rumbling

Up and Down Daily on US 101,

In WA and Oregon.

They bring Timber to the Mills,

Where machines and men,

Shape Douglas Firs into 4x4's

For the Home Depot bins.

Timber and the Northwest,

a USA economic mainstay;

Replanted Managed Forests the Norm

in these 2022 days.

Coos Bay darkened in the fierce wind and rain;

while the Indian Casino was bright and gay,

slot machines running night and day.

Quiet Brooking, a humble seaside place,

with the nearby Pelican Bay Prison locking up

the worst of the human race.

A dead whale in the sand near Orick rots,

the carrion birds eat and happily squawk. 

Eureka Bay, was wasting away

in the plywood papermills' scum,

something needed to be done;

and, the old nuclear plant's

abandoned concrete core,

a statue in the sun,

had to be undone.

Whether in Oakland or Tacoma, ports so busy,

docks unloading, 24 hour bustling cities."

Memories of Pacific Coast Places
Travels on US Highway 101 & 1
West Coast Snapshots & Snippets

Haiku, Short Poems, Photos
Graphics, Concrete Poems

By Michael P. Garofalo