Since I was a little kid, I have visited this part of Oregon to see my grandparents. I have many memories of visiting the blowholes of Cape Perpetua, exploring the tide-pools, and eating hotdogs from the local coffee stand. In recent years, "Thor's Well" has become a popular spot for tourists, however I had never really paid attention to it until this summer; the other blowholes of Devil's Churn were always more interesting to me. Kylene from the local coffee stand told us that she had always referred to this since childhood as "Cook's Toilet Bowl" as it looked more like a giant toilet in the area that Captain Cook had once explored. Still, for a toilet bowl, it is a beautiful scene located in one of my favorite regions I have ever been to. This shot was really exciting to take as water would shoot up over 15 feet in the air directly in front of my face. Both my camera and I got soaked. I ended up removing my shirt and jacket as I was unprepared and needed something to cover up my camera. I ended up cold and wet but the adrenaline experienced and beauty witnessed made the shot well worth it.
El Matador State Beach, 2015. Last week, I was treated to the best sunset I have ever seen. The sky was gray and gloomy the whole day but Jeff Lewis (http://landescapevisuals.com/) predicted that the sky would look quite different soon. We departed from UCLA and made an impromptu trip out to El Matador Beach in Malibu. This is what we saw next. There were obviously no regrets in skipping class for this one. This scene has created a memory of the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.
This was taken near my first campsite on Thousand Island Lake during the first sunrise of my backpacking trip out in the Eastern Sierras. The area was filled with crystal clear lakes, blossoming flowers, powerful waterfalls, towering trees, monumental mountain peaks, and last but not least, thousands of relentless mosquitos. If you stopped moving for a second, the mosquitos would swarm around you and feast on your blood. Not fun. Lesson learned. Next time, I’m bringing a mosquito face net and a can of bug spray that lasts MORE than one night. But the mosquito bites are fading and I’m left with some rich memories and photos from a very beautiful forest that I can’t wait to explore more of soon.