NPS 4: Day 4 (June 1)

Today was a long, but absolutely beautiful day. I think that this was the end of our 8-hour maximum, no stress, super chill days of exploration. We spent the morning in the Jedediah Smith State Park just outside of Redwood National Park. Have you ever been there? It is stunning. Simply amazing.

I am such a nut. Even while I am surrounded by gorgeous, ancient, ginourmous trees, I am captivated by a cluster of leaves. But look at them.. so still, so green, so full of detail!


And here is my feeble attempt to capture the beauty of the redwoods.

We stopped a little tiny unmarked beach at the very northern tip of the California coast & I was again mesmerized by the flora.

Little did we know that our last stop of the day would be less than 30 miles from Crescent City. That's right... we went from Crescent City, California, to Brookings, Oregon. If you want to get all technical, then we drove more than 30 miles with the trip through Jedediah, but (what is that expression... 30 miles "as the crow flies") the point of my long winded story is that we didn't go very far! :)

Harris Beach State Park is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. We arrived there in the early afternoon and fell in love with the place. We only left to run into town for dinner, and since it was perfect picnic weather, brought it back to the park. This beach was a photographer's play land. Any time I can use my neutral density filters, I confidently call it a good day.

Ugh. I am throwing this pic in (the one below) to remind myself to check my aperture setting. I usually am taking macros or portraits & tend to stay in the lower aperture settings. I ended up with crummy detail & horrible halos on the entire set of long exposures that I took in this spot. A pricey mistake, eh?

Just as we were walking back, I noticed this odd little bird. I do not know what it is... do you? His body style & super long beak look so prehistoric. I called him little dinosaur bird. I wish I had more light (or a fixed 2.8 lens!) because the sun had long since set and I was already in the high ISO range. Oh well, at least I took a few pics & have moderately ok detail.

And that is a wrap for now! I'll get cracking on Day 5 pics... more beautiful scenes from the Oregon Coast!

Thank you so much for taking a look & hope all is well in your neck of the woods.