Essays About the Oregon Coast

This section contains general blog entries, including essays. Right now it has five entries.

Covered Bridges That Carry Traffic. Twenty-nine of Oregon's 53 covered bridges remain active parts of the state's rural road network. Some serve only a few houses; others carry logging trucks on a daily basis. This photo essay has lots of pictures along with its detailed descriptions.

The Best Photos of 2017. During the summer season of 2017 I shot the cliffs of the Oregon Coast, the Rogue River backcountry, and covered bridges around Corvalis.

The Most Important Thing About Maps of the Coast Range — There Aren't Any. The Coast Range is criss-crossed by paved backroads, typically incredibly scenic. Unfortunately, maps don't distinguish these from dirt roads, gated private roads, fire breaks, streams, and pure fantasies. So I am making my own maps and posting them here.

Why Write About Places?. Here are four essays on why places look the way they do. Understand how a place came to be that way and you understand the people in it — and not just the current inhabitants either.

Why Coos Bay?

About the Coast Range

Backroads of Oregon's Coast

What's The Story With The Coast Range? This essay tries to make sense of the random blobiness of the Coast Range, that long, narrow stretch of mountains that follows the Pacific only a few miles inland. I wrote it as a challenge while I was still back East. It's on target mostly. If I corrected it I'd add something about block faulting. Otherwise it's a good place to wrap your head around the strange chaos of the physical shape of these mountains.