Shore Acres State Park Oregon

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part B: The Oregon Coast III f

A Trip Highlight

The thing that really impressed me then, and impresses me still, about the Simpson Beach area of Shore Acres State Park, however, was/is not the surf. Rather, the thing that impressed me the most was the rocks that I saw there. Now, again, remember, I am no Geologist, and have never even had a course in the subject. I know you have sedementary rocks and igneous rocks, one formed by sea sediment, and one formed as a result of volcanic action, but beyond that, I am just a mere tourist(Yes, I know there are more kinds, but I have to go look that up). That said, I was impressed with what I saw. And more importantly, I was impressed with how the rocks I saw left tantalizing suggestions about how things were millions of years ago when the hot lava from the Cascade Volcanoes came down and met the sea, and all the heating cooling and upheaval that occured as a result of this action. And as I walked among the rocks, in most places dwarfed by their size, I simply observed and marveled. No I don't know exactly what happened back then, but whatever it was, it was surely literally "earth-shattering."



There were a few "rocks" that were all scarred, scraped and coated with pocks. These were interesting, but not a new phenomena for me. I had seen similar rocks both at Tobermory ON, and Kelly Island Ohio. So, based upon the presence of these, while I would have liked Simpson Beach, I would not have been as over-awed with it as I became.


No, it was the combination of the sandstone with lava interspersed that put me" over the top." The sandstone was not the substantial kind such as I see on our place in Greenbrier County WV a lot of the time. Simpson Beach Sandstone was a more fragile sandstone. At one point when I rubbed two of the rocks together very gently, they still crumbled away. Further, they had swirls and strands of color in them that reminded me of a grey-like marble cake. And then into the midst of this marble cake dough-like rock, there was a hard chunk of lava suspended.


As noted in my last blog, there was a cave at the beach as well. It was a good sized one, as the picture shows. I went over to the entrance, but did not go in. J. far more adventurous than me, did go in. He said the walls of it looked much like the cliffs there at the beach. So how and why did it form? Sure it was from water erosion, I said the sandstone was very crumbly. But why just this cave? Why hadn't the water washed away the rest of the cliffside?


Oh yes, one final piece to make this stop on of the highlights of our trip for me. I found among these amazing rocks Tide Pools. I had mentioned earlier when I was blogging about Cape Perpetua, that I had hoped to see the Tide Pools there, and was disappointed I had arrived at the wrong time in terms of the tides. Well here, I was able to see a few of them.


In short, this was one amazing place. It was amazing in what it was, and in what it suggested it once had been. Would I return here again if I had the chance? You bet I would!

Shore Acres State Park Oregon

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire


Part B: The Oregon Coast III e

On the Beach (Yet again)

Enough of worms and weather forecasting, it is already snowing outside for crying out loud! Back to Oregon and Shore Acres park.

When I last was posting about this spot, we were just leaving the Formal Gardens and headed for Simpson Beach. J. had talked about Simpson Beach in terms of "You really need to go. . ." and "You'll really like it . . ." and my experience with him has been that when he says that, listen. Still, as I caught my first glance on the trail down, I was not too impressed. It's a beach, yes, and it has rocks, yes. But to earn all this amount of concerted devotion that J. seemed to have for it?

And as I rounded the bend and got my first good look, I still wasn't sure that it was all that special. And then I took a second look and began to notice, well, . . . things are a little different here. The tear-drop shape of it, for one thing gave me a slight tip off. And over on the left side I noticed . . . a cave in the cliff. And then, . . . those rocks on the right. Well, . . . maybe there is something to this.

Upon arriving at the beach I walked over towards the right and spied these upthrusting bits of what appeared to be sedementary sandstone, with more evidence of volcanic activity in them. But it wasn't just the rocks, it was the whole scene that sparked my curiosity. And then I realized I had seen this scene several times before in promotional literature for the Oregon Coast. That was when I realized that apparently this is a favorite spot for people to come to watch the storms break onto shore. (It makes no sense to me that people would actually travel many miles just to watch a weather front come on shore, but people do. Then again, people Bungee Jump off the New River Gorge Bridge in WV on Bridge Day each October.)

Next, I walked over towards the left in order to get a better view of the rugged rocks.

Now this was mid-August and the storms were not coming in. However, the tide was, and so that meant that there was some wave action to be seen. Not as much as in the winter months, that is for sure. But still there was some wave action.

And then, I began to realize that the rocks were a lot bigger than I first had thought. "How big?" you may ask. Well to answer that I saw some boys standing along the cliff out aways from where I was. So I took a shot of them in order to provide some perspective.

Finally, I pulled back from my spot upon the ledge and just watched the waves roll in over the rocks. And I wondered: "What would it be like to be here when a storm came in? How big do those waves really break?"

And: "How far do they come rolling in on the beach? . . . And what damage do they do? What would it be like to be here and watch that ? . . ."

Oh my, what next, Bungee Jumping? (Note Bridge Day for this year is past and no way would you ever find me there. Which is to say, the spell broke.)

Winter Forecast

The Woolly Worm Forecast

We interrupt the Journey to a Land of Water, Wind, and Fire, to bring you this late breaking news. No, nothing to do with the election, it's pretty much a non-event in West Virginia. No, this is far more important.

It's Woolly Worm Time in West Virginia. And as we all know that means our Winter Weather Forecast has arrived. Yes, Punxsutawney PA may have its ground-hog, but West Virginia, and many other states, such as North Carolina have their woolly worm.

And this forecast of mine has been "cross-checked." That's right, talking with one of the guys at church this morning, I found that he had seen a woolly worm similar to the one pictured above (found on our farm in Greenbrier County) while playing golf at the Stonewall Jackson Resort in Central West Virginia. To date, I have seen no others, so I can, with confidence, go with these two sightings and not bother myself with any future pesky sightings. (I'll just call any future sightings contrary to my predominate two: "Indeterminate Outlying Data.")

Now that we have our data, here we go with the "Fearless Forecast" based on what I was taught by the good folks of Greenbrier County many years ago, and officially proclaimed to a waiting world by the the late Charles Von Canon. He explained to a small crowd that huddled together in the sub-freezing temperatures at the first Woolly Worm Festival in the middle of October 1978, in Avery North Carolina: "The Wooly Bear caterpillar has 13 brown and black segments, which correspond to the 13 weeks of winter. The lighter brown a segment is, the milder that week of winter will be. The darker black a segment is, the colder and snowier the corresponding week will be."

As you can see, there is a prominent dark brown, verily black, band at the head of the woolly worm (it is headed down the Gatepost). This dark brown is followed by a long, light brown coat, with just a touch of dark "wool" at the rear. This means that winter will start off cold and snowy, then it will settle down and be a mild winter for the rest of the time, with the exception of one very brief bad spell sometime in mid to late March.

So, now you know: that's what our winter will be like.

Of course, this is a West Virginia Forecast only. To be truly accurate, you will need to read the woolly worms in your particular locale. And remember, if you see more than one and come up with different forecasts, you're on your own as to how to determine which one is right (or you can proclaim all of them are correct and wait for Spring to proclaim that winter was just as you and the woolly worm predicted it would be).

Let me know what your woolly worms say.

And keep track of your winter weather and let me know how accurate the woolly worm (mine or yours) is for your location. Who knows, we might turn this into a "true" blog dedicated to scientific research instead of one dedicated to the ramblings of an old man!