Photo Gallery
Photos by Rich Hoyer unless otherwise noted
The Heceta Head lighthouse, with Steller’s Sea Lions on the rocks below, is a fitting introduction to the splendid beauty of Oregon.
A migrant Wandering Tattler on the jetty at the Siuslaw River is a lucky find.
Once in Ashland, we’ll settle into our comfortable hotel for seven nights.
Photo: Ashland Springs Hotel
Moist meadows in the conifer forests not far from Ashland are typical of our picnic settings.
Here an Olive-sided Flycatcher scans for olive-sided flies…
…and one of the large-billed types of Red Crossbill sits on the tip of a local Shasta Fir.
The mountain meadows are a palette of colorful wildflowers…
…such as this Scarlet Gilia.
It’s a walk of only a couple of hundred yards from our hotel or restaurant to the evening’s stage production. In 2008, the group’s favorite Shakespeare was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here we see the band of mechanicals (Jeffrey King, Josiah Phillips, Ray Porter, and U. Jonathan Toppo) being assigned their roles.
Photo: David Cooper
The non-Shakespeare Plays this year were also all excellent. Here, in Sudraka’s The Clay Cart, Masseur (Jeffrey King) massages the hand of Vasantasen? (center, Miriam A. Laube), who explains his gambling woes as Madani?? (Eileen DeSandre) attends.
Photo: David Cooper
After the theater, there’s always nature. We’ll venture east to the Klamath Basin, where this Western Scrub-Jay posed in a Western Juniper…
…and this Barn Owl inspected us from Prisoners Rock…
…while we marveled at the stark vista, typical of the east side of the Cascade Mountains.
We stop frequently for stunning views, such as Annie Creek, formed during the violent eruptions of Mount Mazama…
…which collapsed and filled with water more than 7,000 years ago to form the deepest and bluest lake on the continent, Crater Lake.
Delicious picnic lunches in gorgeous settings are a favorite feature of this tour.
Even during this driest time of year, the Rogue River flows steadily…
…providing habitat for the delightful American Dipper.
Against such stunning backdrops at Mt. McLoughlin…
…we’ll look for birds amid towering giants like this Western White Pine, the tallest in the world…
…where we hope to find White-headed Woodpecker.
In the central Rogue River Valley…
…we’ll look for Spotted Towhee…
…and the odd Wrentit.