OREGON COAST/REDWOODS COASTAL ADVENTURE May 30 - June 4, 2011 $2,195       Deposit $500 Airport: Crescent City, California

The giant coastal redwoods are the world’s tallest living trees (taller than the Statue of Liberty!). Capturing them on film is not an easy thing to do, but it is an intoxicating place to make the attempt. The endless shades of green, the fragrance of the forest and the dizzying height of the trees are almost too much for the senses.  In addition to the redwoods, we should also be there for the rhododendron bloom.  Doing justice to these scenes with a camera could occupy a person for a lifetime, but it’s an enjoyable challenge to see what we can do in a few days. We’ll visit the Big Groves and the Lady Bird Johnson Grove and work hard on capturing the essence of trees that are up to 2,000 years old and 22 feet in diameter.

We’ll also take a short hike to a magical little waterfall surrounded by rainforest hues. Then it’s on to Fern Canyon, a fairyland of ferns covering 20 foot high walls. As a final attraction, the local Roosevelt elk (the largest subspecies of elk) are often quite approachable.

From the quiet solitude of the redwoods, it’s on to the magnificent wide open beaches of the Southern Oregon Coast, where we’ll spend the second half of the trip.  With the salt air in our faces, we’ll be composing grand landscapes of the crashing waves, wonderfully shaped sea stacks (especially at sunset), as well as intimate landscapes of tide pools and their fascinating creatures. We’ll visit Bandon Beach in search of intriguing driftwood, starfish, a variety of shorebirds, kelp and colorful beach rocks. Perhaps we’ll even be able to wade out to the Battery Point Lighthouse (low tide only!).

Join us for five days of marveling at the size of the trees, smelling the salt air, listening to the crashing waves and walking picturesque beaches. We’ll give your wide-angle, macro and short telephoto lenses a workout (even panoramic if you have it, and longer teles if you’re interested in wildlife).