Unique Delights of Rockaway Beach, Oregon Skies

Published 02/01/2013


(Rockaway Beach, Oregon) - It's not as if the skies are different in this north Oregon coast town, or that they're by and large prettier than the rest of the coastline to any degree. It's simply that something just happens around here with that great blue yonder – likely just coincidence - but it feels like a little more often than usual.

You don't always notice it, but frequently the skies play the biggest part in an especially fetching scene on the Oregon coast. Rockaway Beach seems to have a way of pointing out these magnificent moments to your eye.

That great expanse of sand here lends itself well to whatever is happening above. This, at times, is reflected in the wet sands of Rockaway with remarkable effect (as in the photo above).


Another moment of reflection – both visually and personally – may lead to discoveries like this. There are times that sky seems indistinguishable from the sand. This is always mind-blowing, and if you just take the time to notice It can give you the feeling you're walking out onto the sky itself.


The skies of the Oregon coast are always especially dramatic in springtime. Few photographs of Rockaway Beach exhibit that better than these moody yet heavenly cloud formations and muted colors.


Perhaps some of the atmospheric magic happens here because of the presence of Neahkahnie Mountain about 12 miles to the north. This headland, along with the rest of Cape Falcon, seems to attract its own weather system. Here, it appears to direct traffic in the air overhead, causing the clouds to be quite engaging.


What people often miss about the Oregon coast is what happens just after dusk, just after those amazing sunsets. Indeed, you don't even need a wowing sundown that's visible to produce exceptional sights. Case in point: at this moment, about a half hour after the sun went down, there were too many clouds to even see that sunset. Still, the post-dusk moment yielded this fantasy scene.

On a particularly dreary late fall day, the northern edge of Rockaway Beach, by the Nehalem Bay jetty, never saw much sun. But closing in on dark, even without the amazing sunset color splash, some exciting shades emerge.


Then, if you want to get really esoteric and ethereal, hang out on Rockaway Beach late at night, long after the last traces of any sunset have disappeared. On a cloudless night, you will not be disappointed.

In fact, you'll likely find the experience transformative, and literally out-of-this-world, as the rest of the galaxy and large chunks of the universe appear above you.

See more of Rockaway Beach at the Rockaway Beach, Manzanita Virtual Tour.

 

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