Sunrise on the Coast

Ecola State Park

Indian Beach in Ecola State Park is a great rocky beach for exploring tide pools.  This was the area where we saw the most tide pool life; as I mentioned in an earlier post, most of it was still under water because we came too close to high tide.  I liked the ripply beach pattern in the foreground of this photo.  The big rock outcropping near the center of the frame is just starting to get full morning sunlight.  Along the horizon near the right is Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.  I'm not sure how far off the coast it is, but not quite so far as it looks in this photo.  My framing really diminished it, but I did like the idea of including it in the image. 

On the Rocks

One of the things I really wanted to see when we visited haystack rock a few days ago was tidal pool life.  And since we showed up just after high tide, we were limited in the tide pools we could explore.  Ecola State Park, just down the road from Cannon Beach, has a very rocky beach full of potential tide pool activity.  I climbed precariously around on some of the rocks as the tide was slowly moving out.  I did manage to find a few anemone hiding deep in the shadowy areas of a few tide pools, but no starfish which I was really hoping to see.  This is why I really need to go back during low tide.  I keep reading about these wonderful tide pools, and I really want to see them.  For today, I've got some barnacles, which were the only tidal area life I found and photographed to my satisfaction.