Beauty and the Beach

My family spent Spring Break at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast, and what a refreshing week it was!

The outdoors always sings to my soul. When I’m out in beautiful country the inner resonance is intense; almost physical. I find it difficult to describe, much as it would be difficult to describe a flavor. How would you describe the taste of, say, bananas to one who had never eaten anything like them before? It’s tough to put into words, but you know it immediately when you experience it.

The ocean is my second-favorite place to go in the outdoors. The fresh Pacific breezes, the roar and foam of the surf, and the incredible diversity of coastal wildlife (from birds and crabs to starfish and barnacles – even wild rabbits!) all soothe and satisfy my heart. Scenes like the now-defunct Tillamook Rock Lighthouse (below) are breathtaking.

In fact, the only place that outranks the ocean for me is mountains: real, high, forested mountains, like the Sierras and the Cascades that we enjoy here out West. The Oregon Coast Range dominates the backdrop at the beach. These mountains are smaller then the Cascades just to the east, but they’re still rugged, thickly carpeted with lush ferns, mosses, and fir trees, full of deer & elk, and laced with clear, cold rivers. At one point we even saw a pair of Bald Eagles perched majestically high in the trees overlooking the ocean!

Perhaps that’s why I like the Oregon coast so much, for it is here that rugged mountains meet powerful ocean. Both of my favorite things about the outdoors all in one place, and the scene is positively dazzling. This week brought late season snows to the mountains, as this shot from our front porch (below) shows. So one could stand on the beach facing the oncoming waves, and then turn 180 degrees and look upon snow covered mountaintops. Unreal!

What places resonate with your soul?