R&R at Sunset Bay

We are journeying a little farther northward today, up the Oregon coast. Along the way, we crossed the Rogue River. The Rogue River has some sentimental meaning for me as the very first motion picture I ever saw was called, "Rogue River," and I think was based on a Zane Grey book. I don't remember much about it except that it starred Rory Calhoun and there were lots of scenes of fighting on rafts in the whitewater. Here it is in real life.



It looks placid in this picture but I have seen lots of ads for whitewater rafting adventures, so it must have some interesting stretches of water as it leaves those mountains in the background.



Our campground tonight is at Sunset Bay Beach, a beautiful little cove where pirates are rumored to have huddled through rainy storms here on the coast. I rather prefer the Johnny Depp pirating with white sand beaches and blue skies.



Hmm, Sunset Bay actually has white sands and blue skies!


We didn't camp on the beach though, the campground was a lovely green park.




This beach is also known as a place to sight sea mammals so Chorro and I are keeping our eyes peeled and studying every bit of driftwood for its potential as an sea lion and every wave a whale.



We saw many people playing on the beach today -- it was a sunny day, as you can see.



These kids were racing the waves to shore.





And what a good brother, he went to get the littlest sister to come in too.





But she's not going to have the wave catch her! Speedy little girl, she was.





Since whales don't come in yellow, we quickly concluded that this guy was riding a kayak. Not a very venturesome kayaker though, he stayed close to shore.





This gull does indeed bear a striking resemblance to Jonathan Livingston, don't you think? And when we first saw him, he was looking at his reflection in the water and chanting, "Who Am I?" so I know he was on a discovery path.



You know that I love watching and listening to the waves. I try to capture the spray at its highest point when it hits the rocks. Mountainman suggested that I simply take a movie of the action instead of trying to capture it in a single frame, but that is not as challenging. What would I do with all of the time I spend waiting for the perfect picture?





Knowing we were at Sunset Bay suggested a good sunset picture, and sure enough the bay frames the setting sun beautifully. Many people came out to the beach to watch the setting sun. Even Chorro settled down quietly for a while. Here it is as it slips out of sight.





And tomorrow is a new day.