10 Apr 2024
Good morning from Cannon Beach!
The high tide must have been extra high last night, because the convenient bridge over the little river here was covered in debris:
Oh well, my shoes (dive boots) are going to get wet anyway, so off to the tide pools I go! (I’m hunting solo today- it’s only about 43°F / 6°C outside today so Matt opted to stay in our room where we’ve got the heat cranked up).
I spotted a lot of the same nudibranchs I saw yesterday- this Thick-horned nudi / Hermissenda crassicornis is probably the most common:
Which I’m ok with, because he’s quite pretty!
These guys are also some of the largest I’ve seen so far on this trip (up to 1.5″ or so), which makes them easy to spot.
The Opalescent / Hermissenda opalescens isn’t quite as common, but I did find one:
(I tried to photograph at least one of each of the species I’ve seen, but often forgot which ones I’d found previously, hence tons of pictures of the first guy and only one of this kind)
The trilineata is smaller (most I saw were under 1″) and, because its cerata are shorter, appears more slender than the first 2:
The Candy corn nudi / Antiopella fusca is far less common than the red/orange nudis
I quite frequently found them floating around upside-down on the surface of water, like this:
(these are Hermissenda sp. nudis, not Candy corns)
They are not dead; apparently, this is how they swim- “flapping” their cerata and riding the surface tension. Weird.
I tried to get some better shots of the Chocolate nudi / Cuthonella cocoachroma:
Most of the guys I found were small (less than an inch), active, and hiding in weeds:
But you can kinda see the variation in the brown shades of their cerata:
I found quite a few more of the dotos / Doto amyra:
They are about the same size/shape as an orange TicTac:
And finally, a new to me nudi! A Bushy-backed dendronotis / Dendronotis frondosus:
This guy was on the move!
He did not want to stay still for pictures.
And another new-to-me nudi, the Clown nudi / Triopha catalinae:
Unfortunately, someone else spotted him and by the time it was my turn to check him out, he was over pictures. He tucked up under a rock and did not come back out the rest of the morning (I checked, multiple times)
Look how lumpy and bumpy his orange bits are! Strange nudi…
My little lemon nudi is still hanging out on the same rock- I was really hoping he’d move lower so I could get an in-water picture of him…
Maybe tomorrow?
I’ve mostly just been photographing nudibranchs, but there’s a lot of other life in the pools too- look at all these sea stars!
Lots of little fish too, but this was one of the few that stayed still long enough for me to photograph:
The view on my walk back:
The sun is up, the skies are blue… a perfect day for hiking!
But first, food!
Pancakes are our go-to breakfast when we’re traveling, so I found a spot called Pig’n Pancake, where they had nitro cold brew on tap!
And really good blueberry pancakes (with both blueberry and strawberry compote, because I couldn’t make up my mind)
(no, I wasn’t able to finish all my pancakes, but that just means I’ve got breakfast for tomorrow! …or snacks for later today)
Today’s plan is to do some hiking up at Ecola State Park, which is just to the north of where we’re staying. I found a loop (the Clatsop Loop Trail) that’s somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles (the internet gave me conflicting distances):
I’m also hoping we can park at the Indian Beach area parking lot, which is near the trailhead, rather than hike 2 miles from the Ecola Point lot, but the internet tells me the Indian Beach lot is tiny.
…and the internet is full of lies- there’s plenty of parking at Indian Beach, plus overflow parking along the road.
However, even the official signage for the hike gave conflicting info:
The only consistent thing I could find about this hike was to do it clockwise. We did get a bit distracted by a short hike to a viewpoint, but the path ended up being super muddy, so we turned around and hit the main trail:
I knew the trail would split early in the hike, but we never spotted another branch and I started to wonder if maybe that viewpoint/lighthouse trail was actually the other side of the loop?
I mean, the path was nice and wide:
and a bit snaky:
(I wasn’t quite fast enough to get his head, but I’m pretty sure he’s nonvenemous)
However, pictures do not do the grade justice. I thought too late to check my hiker app, but when I finally did, GPS confirmed that we were most definitely going counter clockwise and now I see why everyone recommended going the opposite direction. This part of the loop follows the service road; we were basically hiking straight up hill for over a mile.
Not fun.
There was a lot of complaining (from me) and a lot of motivation (from Matt). I was all for turning around and either just calling the hike, or finding the other side of the loop, but Matt kept us going and I checked in on the GPS a few times to make sure we were actually making progress.
But finally, we arrived at the aptly named Hikers Camp:
Aren’t the little cabins cute!?
There were 4 bunks in each, and only a few leaks in the ceiling. I did appreciate all the plants going on the roof though 🙂
We took a short (and muddy) side-hike:
Out to a viewpoint where we could see the Tillamook Lighthouse in the distance:
Zoomed in:
One of the reasons I lugged all my heavy camera gear up this mountain
The good news about hiking straight up hill for the first half of the hike is that this second half should be all downhill!
Unfortunately, I think this side of the loop is going to be much muddier than the first half 🙁
It’s also a bit more “natural” so we ran into a few obstacles
This switchback still doesn’t quite capture the elevation changes:
We gained about 800′ on the way up- this path would have been much nicer to climb. There were switchbacks and occasional flat areas. Sure, it was a bit muddier, but the internet was right on the preferred hiking direction.
The views from this path though:
WOW!
slightly less stunning from the big camera vs my phone
But the big camera was able to find these little birds:
This guy in particular was singing and taunting me- it took me longer than it should have to figure out where he was sitting.
This side of the loop had several viewpoints where you could see the lighthouse:
Or just take in the views:
Though some of them were a bit windy!
More views:
A helpful trail log:
The view from the viewpoint we were trying to find:
Also, look at that arched rock way out there!
And finally, the bridge we took on our way back from trying to find the viewpoint at the start of our hike:
We were totally on the right path when we tried to find the viewpoint. Oh well.
Farewell, Indian Beach and Ecola Park!
After hiking and exploring for the better part of the day, we were both just ready to be done, so we ordered takeout (though to be fair, we did walk to the restaurant to pick it up):
and crashed early.
Another great day in Oregon- I’m pleasantly surprised by how well the weather’s cooperated so far!