July 7, 2016, Mile 262

At a minus tide today, the beach was completely changed from anything we have seen before. Sand has been swept away from the dune and the beach, leaving exposed lava flows. The changes are so dramatic I took a zillion photos and will post many of them here.

Colorful signs now mark beach sites so rescue crews can find people more easily.

These offshore rock outcroppings must only appear at a minus tide as we had never seen them before.

Sand is gone from much of the beach leaving a rocky bottom.

A beached and broken crab pot

The dune is now a vertical cliff to the beach

The Cape and Haystack Rock in the distance

It's difficult to see in this photo but there were zillions of tiny creatures darting around and attaching to this underwater rock in a tide pool isolated from the ocean... for now. Our CoastWatch volunteer coordinator, Fawn Custer, told me these are a type of Mysid shrimp: Bermudamysis speluncola; Opossum shrimp

The "no vehicles beyond this point" signs are fighting a losing battle now that the ocean has receded so far from the dune, or rather has stolen so much sand that the dune is now way back from the ocean.

Once isolated by water, this "castle" formation is now accessible from the rocky shore.

And 3 people with their 2 dogs were climbing all over it.

This is "my" mile of Oregon beach, looking north. Cape Lookout is way off in the distance.

The cape is being eroded by the relentless ocean

"my" mile looking north again across the exposed rocks

photo from same spot as above, looking west

The dune now has a sheer drop to the beach

This gull was feasting on a dead crab

It was beautiful weather, cloudy and warm. It started to sprinkle just as I left.

The resident Peregrine Falcon kept watch the entire time I walked his beach.