View as of the first of June.
Arrived at the "Volunteer Village" about noon on June 1st and was greeted by a foggy afternoon, ... Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Arizona anymore!
We're volunteering for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area for June, July and August. Our first time volunteering at Yaquina Head was September 2016.
One of our duties was staffing the information desk, which is currently an information table outside the (temporarily) closed Interpretive Center.
Rick at the information table as seen from the top of Salal Hill.
Other duties included "Roving" the park to answer questions and assist guests, occasional special projects and staffing the Tide Pools.
Tide pool area at Cobble Beach during high tide...
For Tide Pool duty we walk on the rocks around the pools and help visitors find and identify the marine creatures.
Purple and Orange Sea Stars, hopefully getting along.
Gumboot Chiton. Mollusk, about the size of a large boot, with a backbone. Affectionately known as the "Wandering Meatloaf".
All Chiton backbones are made up of 8 plates.
Gumboot Chiton folding itself with the "foot" partially visible. This is unusual behavior, they generally crawl across rocks eating algae.
Hairy Chiton
Several Mossy Chiton's in a small area.
Baby Limpet on a bigger Limpet.
Another Nudibranch among the muscles.
Here's a map of the park, pointing out some of the places I'm referring to.
The Weather!
The first few days at work the weather was pleasant but windy, a harbinger of things to come.
Then the rains came...
The tripple threat, cold (55°F), wind (about 20 mph) and rain, light but enought to sting when it hits your face.
Angry sea off Cobble Beach.
The month of June was off-and- on light rain with little sun and a lot of fog. The wind was a constant, 15 - 30 mph and temps averaged 48 - 55 at night and 55 - 60 during the day. July was better, a lot more sun and very little rain. Even though the temperatures were mild, the wind and fog made it feel much colder.
In August the wind all but stopped. We had a few windy days but for the most part a very pleasant month.
In central Oregon, the summer of 2021 will be remembered for the fires, smoke and a deadly heat wave.
Portland OR record high temp. in June.
Another tripple-digit heat wave struck in August.
All of central Oregon suffered similar temps. The wind pattern pushed those hundred degree temps west to Astoria and Seaside OR, killing much of the exposed creatures in their inter-tidal zones (similar to our "Tide Pools"). Luckily our normal wind pattern stayed out of the north, north-west and our highest temp. was only 75°. As of the end of August, none of the smoke from the inland wild fires made it to our part of the coast. Many of our visitors were escaping the extreme conditions in the central valley (I-5 corridor).
The point where the lighthouse stands is a mile out to sea from the mainland. The weather in Newport can be much different from the lighthouse. However, as you travel inland, the extreme conditions didn't start until about 10 miles in from the coast.
View of Yaquina head from the south (Newport). See lighthouse at far left, blue arrow is where the Volunteer Village is (home).
More from Yaquina Head...
Visitors to the Volunteer Village.
Looking down on Quarry Cove (a senic area on Yaquina Head) with a foggy Newport in the distance.
View of Yaquina Head from the north at Beverly Beach.
Waves crashing over Colony Rock.
Looking down on Smugglers Cove with Cape Foulweather on the horizon, (north side of Yaquina lighthouse parking lot, right side of the below pic.).
Looking down on the lighthouse area from Salal hill.
Pillow fog over Newport, Agate beach at low tide in the foreground.
Visiting Beaver Creek (about 8 miles south of Newport) where we lead kayak tours for Oregon State Parks during the summers of 2017, 18 and 19.
Although the lighthouse is temporarily closed and we've been in it before, we had an opportunity to go inside and see some of the recent changes.
Not much of a view on a foggy day.
Still an active navigation aid maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, the light is now a modern LED...
...using the original 1868 French-made, 1st. order, Fresnel lens to reach ships 20 miles out to sea.
How the Fresnel lens works.
I never get tired of this view from the overlook near our site.
Two weeks before time for us to leave, all the volunteers had to move our campers out of the way for some tree trimming.
Our concrete pad is in the foreground. We pushed our camper back to the overlook.
For a few hours, we had this view from the back windows.
On September 1st, we pulled out, on our way to the next adventure.
Coming next, Sisters Revisited.
