| A harbinger of spring in my yard, the American Goldfinches return each year for a few months. The entire population heads for my yard where they know a feast of thistle seed and sunflower seed hearts awaits them. |
| Face Rock is one of the 1400 or so small islands which comprise the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area. According to the legend of the Nah-So-Mah Tribe of Native Americans (or whatever they want to be called), the face of Face Rock is that of an Indian maiden Ewanua, the daughter of Chief Siskiyou. Siskyou's tribe traveled to the coast from their mountain area for a potlatch with other tribes. Ewanua took her dog Komax and her cat and kittens in a basket down to swim in the moonlight. She invoked the ire of Seatka, the evil spirit of the ocean, by rebuffing his social advances. For this transgression, she was turned to stone in the water. The Cat and Kittens Rocks and Komax Rock represent those entities who were also frozen into stone by Seatka. |
| Elk Creek Falls is located in the Siskyou National Forest about 25 miles south of our home. Access to the falls area is through a tiny steep hiking trail from Forest Service Road 33. The trail dodges between fern and moss covered boulders and abruptly enters the pocket canyon where the creek drops some 150 feet on it's way to join the South Fork of the Coquille River. I've never encountered any other people on my visits to this sun-dappled sanctuary. |
| Shore Acres on Cape Arago was once the palatial estate of Louis Simpson, lumber and dairy magnate and founder of North Bend. After his financial destruction in the Great Depression, he donated the estate to the State of Oregon. The mansion is gone but the impressive botanical gardens thrive under the care of the state park system and a corps of volunteers from local garden clubs. Above is an area currently hosting a plethora of dahlias. The ocean can be seen through the clearing in the trees. Below is a view from the cliffs of the estate of Shell Island with Simpson Reef behind it. These small islets are all part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. They abound year round with northern elephant seals, harbor seals, California sea lions, Stellar sea lions, cormorants, heron, oystercatchers, and gray whales. |
| A late autumn sun sets into the Pacific behind the north spit of the Coquille River. |
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