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Heceta Head Lighthouse
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010If I had to pick the one place I was most excited to see on our week long excursion, it would be Heceta Head. Its lighthouse enjoys the most stunning setting of any in Oregon.
Woodland Trail
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010This trail begins at the lighthouse and takes hikers farther up Heceta Head. I shot it at 1/5 of a second in order to achieve the painterly blur you see here.
View from the Top
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010A short [unofficial] spur off of the main trail leads to this view of the top of the lighthouse.
Jumping Boy Redux
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Reduced Visibility
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010Waves of fog were coming in off of the ocean. The highway was now completely obscured. The historic Cape Creek Bridge was barely visible.
Beams of Light
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010The encroaching fog made the eight rotating beams of light easy to discern against the twilight sky (although you could never see all eight beams at once). Capturing a decent image of them requires a camera with great low light sensitivity. This shot was handheld at 1/125 second, ISO 1600.
Sentinel
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010It was nearly dark by the time Lewis and I made it down to this point. I bumped my DSLR up to ISO 3200 and took several shots handheld at 1/40 of a second in the hope of getting one that was acceptably sharp. Afterward we decided we’d better head down to the camper while we could still see the trail.
Heceta Bay
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010After it was completely dark Lewis and I walked to the edge of Heceta Bay to see what kind of image we would get with a longer exposure. This shot resulted from a 30 second capture, the time it took for three of the light beams to rotate past us. We got what I had expected, a good sense of Heceta Bay lit up by a large, indistinct light source.
Cape Creek Bridge
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010There was no sunrise the next morning so I wandered out to the Cape Creek Bridge instead. I find bridges interesting. Bridge designers seem to go out of their way to make their bridge unique in one way or another, so that a century later folks can put up a sign by it that says, “This bridge is the only bridge in [insert location here: state is good; country is better; continent is preferred; planet is ideal] that has [insert unique characteristic here].”
Cape Creek Bridge II
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Heceta Head Lighthouse Viewpoint
Highway 101, Oregon – August 2010We returned south along highway 101 for a mile or so to get to this classic view of the lighthouse. The previous evening it had been completely obscured. This morning it was coming in and out of view as the fog blew through. With visibility like this it was easy to understand why the lighthouse was necessary in the first place.
Heceta Head Lighthouse Viewpoint II
Highway 101, Oregon – August 2010To the east (right) of the lighthouse one can see the light keeper’s house, now a bed and breakfast. What a neat place to spend a few days enjoying the coast.
Sea Foam
Highway 101, Oregon – August 2010
Allen’s Hummingbird
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010Reaching the Heceta Head lighthouse involves a half mile hike from the parking lot at Heceta Bay. About halfway to the top, just before reaching the keeper’s house, a large patch of fireweed attracts scores of Allen’s hummingbirds. During the middle of the day visitors may encounter one or two; in the early morning and late evening it is more likely to be fifteen or twenty.
Allen’s Hummingbird II
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010I’d spotted these tiny creatures the evening before but there was no way I could properly photograph them in the low light. This morning there was enough light to shoot them at 1/1600 of a sec, ISO 1600 – still not fast enough to freeze the motion of their wings.
Allen’s Hummingbird III
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Allen’s Hummingbird IV
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Allen’s Hummingbird V
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Sea Lions
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon – August 2010The Sea Lion Caves, though not actually on Heceta Head, are just a few minutes south. Let me tell you right up front that the $32 we paid to get in was not worth it. Not even close. Still, it was a certain Boy’s eighth birthday today so I forked over the cash for the privilege of looking over the edge at this group of sea lions resting down below. Later, I would unknowingly fork over even more cash when I left my wife and son in the gift shop and returned to the camper. And yes, I should have known better...
The Caves
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon – August 2010Had the sea lions been hanging out in these caves during our visit, I would have felt a little bit better about the value/dollar ratio of our visit. Nevertheless, there were a number of exhibits which proved to be of some interest.
Seafood for Breakfast
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon – August 2010I like the way this bird thinks. There’s never a bad time to enjoy a little seafood. A number of her bird friends seemed to agree, gazing enviously at her morning's catch.
Lighthouse View
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon – August 2010
The Mom and The Birthday Boy
Sea Lion Caves, Oregon – August 2010
Lighthouse Tour
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010During the summer, free tours of the lighthouse are offered daily. We arrived up at the lighthouse just after noon and had to wait about 20 minutes for our tour. By the time our tour was over the wait was two hours.
Stairway
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010Anyone who has been inside a lighthouse before may find the exposed brick walls unusual. They are. Lighthouses are often double walled with an air space between the inner and outer walls. Once this lighthouse was automated it was no longer visited on a regular basis. The outer wall sprung a leak and the air space filled up with water. By the time the coast guard discovered the situation, plaster was falling off the inner walls. Rather than repair the plaster, the decision was made to sandblast it completely off.
Climbing to the Top
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010The lighthouse itself would certainly be more attractive if the coast guard hadn’t decided to replace the windows with concrete. Given the popularity the lighthouse now enjoys, perhaps this decision will be revisited at some point by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department which now manages the site.
First Order Fresnel Lens
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010This is as close as we got to the first order fresnel lens that rotates around the light at its center. It’s hard to believe that such a small light can be seen from 21 miles away. It is actually the curvature of the earth rather than the brightness of the light that prevents it from being seen farther than that.
Our Guide
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010
Sunny Days Ahead
Heceta Head, Oregon – August 2010When we emerged from the lighthouse we were greeted by the sun. It had disappeared behind a fog bank about 20 miles before we arrived in Bandon and we hadn’t seen it since. The Oregon coast has a completely different feel when it’s shrouded in the cool stillness of a foggy day; I very much enjoy it. Yet the warmth of the sun was a welcome change of pace.
previous image set: Darlingtonia State Natural Site, Oregon
next image set: Cape Perpetua, Oregon
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