Pics of the Day for June 19-23

Friday's Pic of the Day
Friday, 06-23-2000. Sunny and windy with scattered clouds this morning. Our Pics of the Day feature Lake Garrison, Port Orford's freshwater coastal lake. Our first picture was shot from Paradise Point Road looking north to south with part of Coast Guard Hill in the background. Turtles and other wildlife congregate in this area at times.

Our next picture shows the lake from Arizona Street looking east to west. Several times we've seen a Beaver swimming in the cove. Fishermen will work this area for Bass sometimes too. Norma's heard reports that Trout were being caught with some reaching 18" or more.

This last picture shows some of the houses that line the Lake. Most of the shoreline is privately owned with several large areas still open for new development. Most of the hillside property that sits above town has views of the lake with the ocean just beyond the sand dune.

Tomorrow pics from Battle Rock Park!

Thursday's Pic of the Day  Click on images to enlarge
Thursday, 06-22-2000. Sunny, clear, and windy again this morning. Our Pics of the Day feature more shots from the Port of Port Orford Reconstruction Project. The first photo shows the lattice crane that is temporarily handling hoisting chores for the commercial fishing fleet.

Our next picture shows the view of Mill Rock with Hubbards Creek Beach and the Siskiyou Coast Range in the background. This picture explains why this area's catch phrase is 'Where the mountains meet the sea.'

These next photos show a family taking-in the scenery while waiting for the crabs to fill their trap that they just dropped over the Port wall. The fishing for Rock Cod is pretty good off the jetty rocks too. Just don't forget to keep an eye on the ocean, you never know when a large wave might roll in and take you out with it. Several people are killed each year from these sneaker waves. The photo on the left shows the south end of the Port with the western tip of Humbug Mountain in the background.

This last photo is a zoomed image of the large seastack that sits off Fort Point (the peninsula adjacent and to the west of Battle Rock). I like this photo because of the way it's interesting colors and textures contrast with the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. The south tip of Battle Rock is seen directly behind the seastack.

Tomorrow we feature Lake Garrison.

Wednesday's Pic of the Day
Wednesday, 06-21-2000. Sunny, clear, and windy this morning. Our Pics of the Day feature shots from the Port of Port Orford Reconstruction Project. I stopped at the Castaway Hotel that sits above the Port and took these 2 pictures to illustrate the progress and give an overview of the Port. The first one is a wide angle view showing the full Port and it's facilities.

The second photo is a zoomed view of the construction portion of the Port. The bright white parts are the concrete storefront pads and walkway for the stairs that will eventually connect to the floating dock shown to the right of the walkway.

Our next group of photos are view shots from the Port. The first one shows Historic Battle Rock and the hill that sites above town. Dan and Mary Lou Hill (our friends and owner of the camera that these pictures were taken with), lives on this hill and provided several past Port photos shot from their home. 

The next photo shows Battle Rock Beach with the Sea Crest Hotel in the background. 

The photo on the left shows Rocky Point with Highway 101 above. The Rocky Point area used to be a constant maintenance problem until the new bridge was constructed a couple years back. The kids and I sometimes hunt for clams just south of the point during negative low tides. 

Our last photo shows Humbug Mountain with the jetty in the foreground. There is a nice camping park adjacent to Humbug with showers and RV hook-ups. If you look closely you'll see a Seagull flying-in to join his buddies on the jetty.

Tomorrow more pics from the Port.

Tuesday's Pic of the Day
Tuesday, 06-20-2000. Sunny and clear this morning. Our Pics of the Day feature more shots from our Sunday visit to Cape Blanco. The photo on the left shows the Cape Blanco Lighthouse looking southwest to northeast.

We left-off yesterday with Jacob and myself on the observation level directly below the main lenses platform. The group taking the lenses tour finished and now it was our turn to climb the ships ladder that leads up to the light level. We were met by a friendly volunteer who rattled off the history of the lenses and it's mechanisms. I've taken the tour several times before so I was more interested in snapping pics of the views from this magnificent lighthouse.

Cape Blanco is one of the few west coast lighthouses that still uses it's original crystal lenses. This lenses was shipped from France in separate pieces and reassembled on site. The lenses suffered some damage a few years back when some kids thought it would be fun to use the lenses as target practice for their rifles. The main damaged area was replaced but there are still chips from the vandalism. The photo on the left shows one of the crystal focal pieces.

We finished the lenses tour and made our way down the stairwell as others immediately took our place. Our next stop was the visitor center where photos, uniforms, and artifacts are stored and displayed. Another friendly volunteer met us at the door and asked us to sign the guestbook and offer assistance. Jacob jabbered with the volunteer while I made my way around snapping images of the old photos on display. These two photos show how Cape Blanco looked in earlier days. I neglected to take down notes so I can't give specific dates for each photo. All the original structures, except the lighthouse, are now gone.

Tomorrow pics from the Port of Port Orford reconstruction project.

Monday's Pic of the Day
Monday, 06-19-2000. Sunny with scattered clouds this morning. Our Pics of the Day feature shots from our Sunday visit to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. Dan Hill dropped off his Sony Mavica last week and told us to put it to good use (this digi-cam has a 14X zoom lenses). Jacob (our 15 year old son) and I visited several Port Orford locations yesterday, but today we'll concentrate on the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. 

We arrived at the park at about 2:00 PM. The weather consist of light fog and moderate winds. We first circled the lighthouse and snapped a disk full of images from various angles and zoom settings. The picture on the upper left shows the lighthouse from the east looking west. The picture on the upper right was shot from a southeast to northwest direction with 6 foot tall Jacob standing by for perspective. The photos adjacent to this paragraph shows the cupola, lenses and lookout windows for stairway lighting. I included the picture on the right in landscape format so our lighthouse lovers can use it as their desktop wallpaper.

We then entered the lighthouse and walked up the circular staircase that leads to the lenses and beacon. The photo on the left shows the stairwell from the upper level looking down. There was another group above us taking the lenses tour so we had a few minutes to snap some images thru the windows shown on the cupola photos above.

 The photos are a little streaky because the windows were dirty, but you can still get a good feel for the vistas this lighthouse provides. The photo above right was shot looking north towards Bandon with the Sixes River outlet on the far right portion of the image. The picture on the left was shot looking south towards Port Orford with Cape Blanco Beach and Humbug Mountain peeking thru the fog.

Tomorrow's Pic of the Day will feature past and present photos of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.

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