Sunday, May 30, 2010

Canon Beach

Chandru and Sahana knocked at my room door at around 11.30 to drop their things which was supposed to be carried back to India. We were really very hungry and yes Sahana our chief Chef had Bisibele bath and Curd rice for us. I was a bad host though even the potato chips in my room was emptied the previous night. After a quick lunch we decided to go towards Canon beach. Boby was not interested to join us for Canon Beach, well he did regret for not joining us the next day.


We didn't know that we had to drive through Chandru's house, we did regret that we had to waste a bit of fuel. But the drive to Canon Beach is very scenic with thick forest along both the sides of the road. We really can't make out that we would be reaching sea until the end. It was a bright and sunny day, saying so one good thing i did was not forgetting my jacket in the car. Chandru did regret for doing this mistake. Even though it was a bright sunny day, breeze from sea is very chilled. You would be shivering of cold with in few minutes of walk.













It was a perfect day for me and chandru with bright light and beautiful landscape for me and chandru to do some photo shoot. We had a bit of extra light though, probably we should have waited till the evening. But then its summer time and it was a long day. We waited till almost 6 and still sun was in no mood to set. Usually during this time sun sets by around 9 and it gets dark by around 10. We didn't have so much time and we were even getting tired and feeling cold after the long long walk along the beach.

Major attraction of Canon beach is huge rocks along the sea, Haystack Rock is the biggest of all and is the main attraction of all. It was great to sea a huge rock and it was home to thousands of sea birds sitting all along the rock. Probably it was breeding time.Haystack Rock, at 235 feet high, is the third largest coastal monolith in the world. Haystack Rock is protected as part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge as well as a designated National Wilderness Area.

What caught our attention the most was the low tide, while we were about to return in matter of minutes we could see that the sea went back by atleast 100-200meters back. I had never seen it happening so fast, I did scare chandru about Sunami :-). But then read that this beach area is under extreme high tide and extreme low tide line with almost 300 yards radius.

It was a pleasant walk, I really don't know what exactly to write about this place, can only say that its a place to be visited with loved ones and then just go for a walk holding hands. One thing about places in US is you can get all the details in an organized manner, so i should really be trying to give details about the place in a stupid manner. I would just point to the right link http://www.cannon-beach.net/cbtranspo.html

Monday, May 17, 2010

BackLogs

I have been wanting to write for quite some time, but for no reason i know off i am unable to update my blogs. Keep watching for these travel logs which will be updated pretty soon

1) Bird watching in Bannergatta
2) Drive to Nandi Hills
3) Drive to Kukke and Bisle Ghat
4) Silver Falls
5) Trip to Trivendrum
6) BhadraRiver Camp Trip
7) Canon Beach
8) Mount Hood Drive

I may not update the same in an order but will try to write up at least a few words at the earliest on each of my outing.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Silver Falls

It was a beautiful accidental trip. I got up around 6 and then was checking my mails all of a sudden I saw Chandru online, bugger he wanted to stay in invisible mode and wanted to travel alone with Sahana leaving me but then I tracked him down and forced him to tell the plans for the weekend. Poor guy was left with no choice but to disclose his weekend plan of visiting silver falls.














I called up Boby my colleague to get ready in 15min and then we started to Chandru's place in Beaverton. After a quick break fast we started driving towards Silver Falls.













As expected most of the places in and around Washington and Oregon are really beautiful and scenic. One surprising thing was I thought all roads in US were like 6 lanes but then once you enter the smaller regions roads are very much smaller with lots of cross roads as well. As soon as we reached Silver falls we thought of starting our 14mile trail hike but then thought lets first finish our lunch rather than carrying it. I would say that was the wisest of the decision for that day :-). Sahana had prepared amazing pongal and curd rice. But well myself and chandra had some contributions for curd rice as well probably that's what made it the best.
Silver Falls really spectacular, the best part of the trip though was a bright sunny day which is very much unusual in Portland area. Also what i liked the most was the trail which goes under the rocks and behind the water falls, which gives one the feeling of standing behind the water falls and feel the beauty.
It was really a good feel, to walk in bright sunlight watching 9 out of 10 good waterfalls on a single day. Still unlike India what I missed the most was getting into water and play under the falls. Neither its warm enough to get into water nor its allowed. Probably we might be fined here if you get into water :-). As a result I ended up feeling like walking in a man made forest with man made water falls. But no question on the beauty of the place its just spectacular its just that i couldn't feel it wild the way you get to feel it in India :-). At times you can say like too much organized makes life so boring, there has to be thrill to explore that's when you get the rush in adrenalin.
We laughed a lot the entire day there were quite a few funny moments, few of them were a joint venture say a business proposal b/w me and chandra to create Minchi falls beside Frenchi falls with Sahana being the toll collector. And then embrassing moments for Boby to find a restroom and being caught by fellow hikers when Boby tried to tresspass for a nature call :-)
After we returned from covering 9 out of 10 falls we were like dead tired from walking almost 10kms on a single day and were really hungry. What came to our rescue was again Pongal and curd rice. We dropped back chandru and sahana at their home, had a nice dinner and headed back to our rooms. End of a wonderful weekend in Vancouver,WA.
I didn't write much about the place becuase there is already lots of information about the place in the offical website so me writing in bits and pieces doesn't really make any sense. Find more details about the state park under the link http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_211.php