Happy Holidays from Geotripper!

It's a big beautiful world out there, and all I can think of for this day is to share a little corner of it with you all, and to wish you all a happy and safe holiday season in all your travels and visits. We've enjoyed a few days along the central Oregon coast, and now we are setting off on the homeward journey (through a rather exciting looking storm!).

The Siuslaw is one of the many rivers that flow out of the Oregon Coast Ranges to the sea. At Florence, the river flows through the Oregon Dunes, and the mouth of the river is the site of a constant battle between river, dunes, and waves.

The bridges of the Oregon Coast are beautiful, and from underneath some recall the ruins of Gothic cathedrals.

We didn't see a lot of sun during our visit (Really? It rains in Oregon?), but it peeked out for a beautiful sunset the other day.

For Christmas Eve, we explored along the coast a bit and found a beautiful spot where Cape Creek meets the sea at Heceta Head. There's a lighthouse hidden in the trees above the center of the photo.

Have a great holiday! Peace to all.

Greetings from the Road: Mojave Desert

Holiday greetings to everyone! We're on the road to various locations in Arizona and Southern California, so posting might be sparse the next few days.

Having done several posts on the Calico Mountains, I realized I had no distant shots of the mountains, so I snapped a couple from Highway 40 outside Barstow. Calico makes its presence known with the logo across the mountaintop. The actual village is at the lower left, behind the light-colored foothills, which are composed of the Barstow Formation. The Calico fault zone passes behind the hills as well. More on the Barstow in a future post. The red and gray rocks making up the core of the mountains are late Miocene volcanic rocks.

The sunrise is courtesy of the fourth floor of Harrah's in Laughlin. I love the mountains in the vicinity, which are composed of rhyolite tuffs, but I don't know the age. I try to spend more of my time outdoors while taking advantage of cheap rooms and meals!