Ecola State Park, Oregon

One of my main goals for this trip was to spend a significant amount of time photographing various areas of the Washington and Oregon coasts. Being that this is the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest, I was skeptical as to how successful this endeavor might be. I was lucky in Washington... cooler than normal temperatures meant that the skies were clear and the rain held off. As I made my way to Oregon, the weather changed. The temps warmed up considerably, and it started to rain. Not only that, but it rained HARD as I drove from Forks, Washington to Seaside, Oregon. So hard it reduced visibility enough so that I had to drive about 15 to 20 mph under the speed limit.



I had planned my drive so that I would arrive in Ecola State Park, just south of Seaside, in time to shoot the sunset along the shoreline. As the day progressed, however, it looked less and less promising that there would be a decent sunset. But, as I drove through Astoria I could see a few breaks in the clouds and the rain started to let up. By the time I got to Ecola State Park, there was a big enough break in the clouds that I could see the sun for just a few minutes before it set. The break in the clouds also allowed some really nice sunset color to come through. I ended up shooting until almost an hour after sunset and came away with several images that I am very happy with.





The next morning I went back to Ecola to shoot the morning light, but things were pretty gray so I ended up spending more time in the woods than I did on the shoreline. After the rain from the previous day the forest was glistening.



That morning there were also a couple of fishermen that were fishing from shore using poles that looked to be about 12 to 15 feet long. They fished from atop the giant boulders that were towering over the water. I watched them pull several fish from the water before I left. If you're ever on the northern Oregon coast, be sure to spend some time at Ecola State Park. Its a wonderful park with some great hiking trails and amazing shoreline!