Natural Bridges Viewpoint

Author's Comments

The first time I came to Natural Bridges I almost drove past it. The pull-off on 101 is unassuming and the walk in is short enough that you do not feel you have earned anything yet. Then the trees open and the cliff falls away and there it is below you, a run of stone arches the sea has been carving for longer than any of us can hold in our heads, and the water moving through them is a color that does not seem entirely plausible. The turquoise is real. It comes from depth and clarity and the particular way the southern Oregon coast holds its light, and it reads strongest in morning when the sun is still low enough to reach into the coves rather than flatten them. By afternoon the arches go into shadow and the magic thins. I have come here in late May and again in September and both times the morning hour was the one that mattered. This is a wide lens place. The composition almost makes itself - dense salal and spruce framing the foreground, the arches at middle distance, the open Pacific beyond - and the temptation is to shoot it once and move on. Resist that. The light shifts quickly here as the sun climbs, and the water changes color with it. Give the viewpoint twenty minutes before you reach for the shutter. The trail continues south into the forest if you want it to. More coves, more stone, fewer people. But the first viewpoint is the photograph most travelers come for, and it deserves the patience of a slow morning rather than a quick stop between drives.

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