Ona Beach

We’ll soon be leaving the coast for the Willamette Valley, so I took a short trip this morning to Ona Beach, where Beaver Creek meets the Pacific Ocean.  This is a small estuary among small estuaries and is only partly under tidal influence according to the National Wetlands Inventory classification.  Nevertheless, there are some of the typical estuarine plants present right along the creek’s banks and intergrading into the sand dunes.  Here are a few pictures:
This is three square, aka Schoenoplectus americanus or Scirpus olneyi.  It seems to prefer sandy environments. In Netarts Bay along the sandy spit that separates the bay from the ocean, it grows in large monospecific patches in the low marsh.

This is Douglas’ aster, Symphyotrichum subspicatum in Latin. It is not a very dramatic plant until it is in flower.  It generally grows in upper elevations in tidal marshes.

An unknown species in the carrot family (Apiaceae).

This is a cool pattern formed by a filamentous alga (?Rhizoclonium) distributed across the sand near the outlet of Beaver Creek into the Pacific.

Adventures in southern Oregon

Crater Lake is the only national park in Oregon, but it is a gem, and it is surrounded by a number of other beautiful places in the southern part of the state.  The lake (which is touted as the deepest in the United States and loved because of its extraordinary clear blue water) developed as the result of snow melt and rainfall over the ~7000 yrs since the last volcanic eruption that formed the crater holding the beautifully clear water.

This is the pumise desert at the north end of the park.

Mt Scott, on the east rim of the lake, is the highest point in the park, approaching 9,000 ft. Snow lingered in patches.

Looking westward from the ridge leading to Mt Scott.

To both the north and south of Crater Lake National Park, there are wilderness areas (Sky Lakes and Mt Thielsen) and other scenic areas.  Miller Lake is near the Mt. Thielsen wilderness.

A manzanita with Miller Lake and the Cascades in the background.

Some flowers ready to burst in pinkness!

Our final adventure lay to the north where we discoved Salt Creek Falls. It is the 2nd largest falls in Oregon and is nestled in beautiful hemlock forest.  The falls are just over the crest of the Cascades (the west side), so the forests there are very different than the east side of the mountain range.  To the east, soils are dry and pine canopies (with little understory vegetation) dominate at lower elevations.  To the west, hemlocks and Douglas firs are present, pines drop out, and there is a more lush understory including rhododendrons.

Salt Creek Falls.