"The Peter Iredale in Gold and Gray" by Amy Ryding

Fort Stevens State Park ~ Photo by Amy Ryding
For more of Amy's photos see Long Beach Peninsula Photo.
Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Purple Light on Old Bones

The Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens State Park ~ Photo by Amy Ryding
This photo was originally posted on Long Beach Peninsula Photo, the blog with the great subtitle, on April 21, 2013. Amy wrote, "The Peter Iredale wrecked on October 25, 1906. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. The Iredale has been on my photographic bucket list for a few months. Although it’s been photographed thousands of times over the past century, it still manages to inspire the imaginations of photographers. The day I went was no exception; there were at least seven other people photographing it while I was there."
Amy's blog is one of my favorites. I liked it from the beginning. Later we met and became great friends.
Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Who Knows Where This Is?

Hammond, Oregon ~ November 2012  

"Secret Beach" at the South Jetty near Astoria, Oregon.  Can you find this?

Where to look:  Go to the South Jetty at Fort Stevens State Park.  There is a wide walkway that heads north parallel to the Jetty.  At low tide you can cross a creek bed and continue North where eventually you'll find the ocean and Columbia River.  The driftwood teepee can be found tucked into the sandy dunes to the right, though weather and time may eventually sweep it away.

 

Cyndi Mudge, Guest Blogger

Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Sunset at the Peter Iredale

September 11, 2010

Toward sunset when the sky is clear enough to see the sun, people begin to gather on the beach near the wreck of the Peter Iredale. If you enlarge the top photo, you'll see a couple of tripods.

It's a nice time to watch, relax with loved ones, wade in the tidal lagoon or the waves, play with the dog, and enjoy the free show.

Last night there were few clouds, but the viewers were rewarded with a bright zig-zag across the sky.

See more Weekend Reflections from around the world.

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Animated

July 7, 2002

Yes, I was glancing through my archives and found this pic from 2002 that I've always liked. It was taken on the beach near the Peter Iredale. We have plenty of driftwood along this part of the coast at any season, and much of it is not the teeny variety. I seem to remember reading that this grass that keeps the dunes from eroding was brought in and is not native. It looks pretty, though, and helps make the Oregon Coast what it is to us today. I wonder what was here before the grass? Did the forest come right down to the sand? Note the overcast day. We've been having similar weather this year, but it may be the coldest July I can remember. I'm not complaining, and we tend to get sun in the afternoon, but I hear some people grumbling about it.

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High Wind, High Surf Advisory

The coast is under high wind and high surf advisories from Sunday night through Monday. The high winds were just beginning and it was still safe to go out on the beach. It's hard to see the blowing sand here, but before I got back to the car, I had sand in my ears, my hair, my clothing, and my camera. Even with the wide angle, I came just short of getting entire length of the wreck of the Peter Iredale. I've included the picture below from February 2008 to show how you can spot the end of the wreckage. Near the center of the photo and touching the horizon are two metal pipes sticking into the air (they look like one in the small version). I'm not sure if they mark the end of the ship or only a spot near the end. The sand ebbs and flows with the elements, and some years, days, or storms, you can see more of the ship than at other times.

Clearly, Peter is more photogenic on some days than others, too. I've posted images before, and I still have a few in the archives to come later. But today I wanted to show you the beginning of the storm. It's been rainy, drizzly, cloudy, and now windy, and it seems we have rain forecast all week. I would love to get out there and show you some huge waves, but we'll see how it goes. Even as I drove back along the access road, the police were out "suggesting" that lookers be careful. And I do have respect for big waves.

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A Good Place to Play

April 11, 2006

Coffenbury Lake, Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Between Asoria and the beach, you'll find Coffenbury Lake if you take the right turn-off. It's never very crowded, and it's a great place to picnic, fish, or - my favorite - take a walk around the lake, mainly through rainforest vegetation. It's also a good starting point for the bike trails through Fort Stevens, because there's a good-sized parking lot behind where I'm standing. Click here and zoom in a couple of levels, and you'll see the long, thin lake and its relation to the river and the ocean. I've take this photo from the northern end of the lake.

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1863-1947, RIP

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon ~ June 5, 2003

Fort Sevens is huge and varied. I've already shown several photos of the beach and other parts. You can read about the military history of this area in Wikipedia. It's only about a 10 minute drive or so from where I live.

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Driftwood in February

Fort Stevens State Park, Warrenton, Oregon ~

February 3, 2006

If you like driftwood, you'll find it in winter on the Oregon beaches. Brought in by the storms, it accumulates along the dunes that separate the beach from the forest and grasslands. The park is large and varied, incorporating ocean, forest, bike trails, lakes, and old miltary bunkers, and it's all about 8 miles west of Astoria.

I took the photo standing a few yards from one of our favorite sites, the wreck of the Peter Iredale. It's such a picturesque and interesting spot (and easy to get to) that I've already used it three times on this blog: sunset, bones of the ship (one of my favorite photos on the blog), and sunset with ship's bones. These photos are taken just a couple of miles south of the jetty series at the mouth of the Columbia River. Fort Stevens also holds this military cemetery. A person could do an entire City Daily Photo blog on Fort Stevens and never run out of material. Don't get me started, I'll end up like Jacob.

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Row on row

The stones stand like soldiers in this small and peaceful military cemetery across Young's Bay near the ocean. You cannot see the ocean from here; the cemetery is surrounded by forest. According to the sign below, although the original cemetery was elsewhere, the current location of the Fort Stevens Post Cemetery "is one of two Army cemeteries still active and accepting Veterans today on the West Coast. The other is Fort Vancouver Barracks Post Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington," just across the river from Portland, Oregon.

I've left this image large so you can click on it to read the text. There is mystery and history that goes along with the first burial. It's not quite what you'd expect from the tranquil decorum of this hallowed ground, but it might be what you'd expect knowing something of Astoria's raucous past.

Here's another scenic view taken at the entrance to the cemetery. On the right, you can see the location of the sign from the middle photo. I'd enjoyed this picture a number of times before I noted the spelling of the soldier's name.

Where the Oregon Coast begins

Oregon is known for its fantastically beautiful and interesting coast, and this is where it starts at its northernmost end. I took this photo the other day from the viewing platform where I also took the picture of South Jetty. In today's photo, you can see some of the rocks forming the jetty, and you can also see light-colored, faded timbers that once formed the trestle and railroad line that brought the boulders that create the entrance to today's Columbia River. There's a lot more of the old trestle to be seen on the other side of Clatsop Spit, and it's quite scenic. The first mile of the stretch of beach you see here was formed after 1885 by the build-up of sand caused by the jetty's presence. Yesterday's post shows this whole location from the air.

The mouth of the Columbia River

It was a bit hazy early yesterday evening when I drove the few miles to Fort Stevens and out to South Jetty to get a photo of the mouth of the great Columbia River. And I got lucky. Do you see the small gray bump in the center of the horizon? That's a big ship coming in from the ocean. It's best to click on the image to enlarge it for a more impressive view. I took this photo from the viewing platform on the jetty. The ocean is on the left, and the river is on the right. The end of South Jetty and North Jetty are so far apart, I couldn't capture them both in the same picture from here, but you'll get an overall view tomorrow, when I intend to post an aerial photo by Frank Wolfe that shows the river pouring into the ocean. In fact, South Jetty angles to the left, and the end of it is just outside the frame of this photo. On the north side, the jetty also ends just outside the frame of the picture. I could easily fill a week's posts with different ways to look at this spot.

Before the jetties were built, ships sometimes waited as long as two or three weeks for conditions to be safe enough to attempt to enter the Columbia River. The jetty in this photo is made of huge rocks, but if you look at the left edge of the silhouette, you'll also see the remains of wooden boards. This is part of the ruined railroad trestle that ran several miles, bringing rocks of up to 50 tons for construction of the jetty. (Much of the trestle still exists, and would make a good photo for another day.) When it was finished, the jetty was five miles long, but it was extended another two miles - a task begun in 1903 and finished ten years later. According to the interpretive plaque supplied by the State Park system, the two jetties were built between 1885 and 1895 "to keep the mouth of the Columbia river from moving around, to narrow the current to help flush out river sediment, and to keep beach sand from clogging the river mouth . . . . Generally, waves and wind push Oregon Coast beach sand south in the summer and north in the winter - sometimes driving sand into shipping channels."

Locals and tourists enjoy coming out for an interesting view, to watch the sunset here and to see big waves during storms. Occasionally the storms are so strong that advisories will warn us to stay away from the jetty and viewing platform.

For scenic photos from around the world, drop in for a visit to Scenic Sunday.

A ship's "bones" on the beach

I took this photo of the wreck of the Peter Iredale in February 2008, and decided to use it today for Scenic Sunday. The Peter Iredale is a popular destination in any season. You can drive right up to the edge of the beach. There are always curious people, photographers, kids, locals and visitors exploring the ruins or waiting for that perfect photo. To me, this angle and amount of ship exposed makes it feel almost alive, or almost like it was alive at some point. I've already posted one photo from another angle with the sun turning the shore to gold. Depending on the tides, more or less of the ship's carcass is exposed, and this view is somewhat unusual. Although I've never seen it, I know people who have been lucky enough to walk on the teak deck of the ship when even more sand has washed away. It's preserved in almost perfect condition, but at the moment it's under sand again. It appears once every few years or so. Often all you will see is the prow of the ship and a few of the metal structures that held up the masts. Every visit is different because of the action of the waves over the days and weeks before your visit, the height of the tide when you're there, the time of day, the lighting, and the weather. The tides here will go all the way to the cliffs on a very high tide, and somewhat further out than you see here when the tide is low. There's always water in the small pools that form around the wrecked prow. Another of my sunset photos that you all liked was also taken here.

The ship came aground in a storm on October 25, 1906. The wreck is a few miles south of the entrance to the Columbia river. There are just under 2,000 known shipwrecks in and around this dangerous river bar, called "The Graveyard of the Pacific." Amazingly, in this ship disaster no one was hurt, and it was lucky for us that it occurred where we can enjoy the aesthetics and romance associated with old ships and the history of the days of sailing ships.

Sunset at the Peter Iredale

Last night at the beach, the sun set not over the horizon line of the ocean, but into a dense fog bank. You can see the bony hull of the wrecked Peter Iredale at the bottom of the photo silhouetted against the waves. The beach is only about a 15-minute drive from downtown Astoria, and it's a favorite place to watch the sun go down. It's especially nice on a evening like today when the air is still wet from a recent shower. The sunset is not as dramatic as it is some evenings, but it always feels special here. Off to the left, I watched a red jellyfish-shaped kite glide among the misty clouds until they turned gold. Be sure to visit other participants in Skywatch Friday to see the skies around the world.

Gold on the water

The Peter Iredale came to grief on the Oregon coast on October 25, 1906. The shipwreck is almost four miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River, and about 10 miles from Astoria. The bones of the ship make terrific material for photographers, and while it's possible to get a bad photo, the opposite is more likely. The setting is idyllic, and on the evening of March 1, 2009, the air was damp from rain and the light was spectacular.

. Scenic Sunday

. Shadow Shot Sunday