I drove north out of Brookings, Oregon the home of the Wild Rivers Film Festival. I wanted to see some of the untamed coastline. The Natural Bridges are located in Curry County along the coastline in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor.
There weer some cars parked on the side of 101, the scenic highway that runs along the Oregon coast. I puled in and hiked with my art bag to a scenic overlook at the bridges. That spot however had a wooden platform with a high wooden fence. I decided it wasn’t the spot to sketch.
Instead I hiked a five mile trail along the upper rim of the cliffs overlooking the rock formations below. At the end of that trail I found this serene scene and I set up to sketch. I liked the abstract eddies created by the sea foam. The sun was setting in the west and I used its angle to decide if I had enough time to hike back to the car before it got dark.
The hike back seemed longer than the hike in. I paused one more time at the wooden platform along with a crowd looking at the rock formations and taking pictures. The place gets more crowded around sunset time since that probably makes for some fine tourist photos.
Heading back to the car I saw two men coming out from another trail that hooked off in the opposite side from the parking spots. They said that trail looked far more precarious and they just wanted a photo at the overlook.
I later learned that this second trail leads down to the bast of the natural bridge formation and it is possible to hike up onto the bridge itself. This is a very difficult hike however and people have died trying to get the perfect selfie. I was satisfied with my one sketch, and headed back to Brookings to get myself a pizza at Wild Rivers Hand Crafted Food and Ale. the reason I went is I liked the look of their logo in the Film Festival programing. It is definitely a family themed restaurant with an arcade area for the kids. All the kids must have been hyped up on caffeine because they were running around like Banshees. This was a major change of pace from the scenic overlook I had just left. I ordered a small pizza but it was still too much to eat, so I got up to ask for a take out box. When I got back, my table was already being cleaned. I got back just in time before the slices were tossed in the trash. Those slices made a good breakfast the next morning.
