Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint

Friday, July 3, 2015

Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint

Heceta Head Light Keeper's House

Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) Forest

Heceta Head Lighthouse. All photos taken in April 2014

Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint can be found on the Oregon Coast north of Florence, OR. It is right off the US 101. The beach, sea stacks, headlands & forest are actually more spectacular than the lighthouse. This is an excellent place to walk on the beach in a cove at the mouth of Cape Creek. There are natural caves & tide pools. Native plants grow lushly all along the beach & up into the headlands. The short trail to the lighthouse passes through a dense forest of Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce) filled with wildflowers in April. The views from the lighthouse are stunning. Picnic tables & restrooms are available near the beach. This one of the most scenic places to stop along the Oregon coast.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.