Drama at Manzanita!

This will be our last evening at Manzanita on our tour of sunsets, and as such, we’ll make it all about the drama at Manzanita. Beach sunsets can be pretty, but on our rugged coast, we are fortunate to have incredibly dramatic ones due to our constant weather flow here. A dramatic sunset over the ocean with the sun just dipping behind a rolling bank of black clouds hovering over the ocean's horizon. The sun's reflection glows on the wet sands of the beach with silhouetted grass in the bottom foreground.

People in Oregon don’t tan, they rust.

We have the Cascade Mountain range to blame (?) for the drama at Manzanita and along Oregon’s beaches. The ocean (in relative terms) is warm (stay with me here). Warm, wet air from the sea pulls inland, driven by the Northern Pacific Gyre, a collection of circulating ocean currents. As this warm air runs into the Cascades, it flows up the mountain, causing it to cool. This cool air causes the moisture to condense, and voila! Clouds and rain.

Dramatic black, blue and grey storm clouds hover over the ocean's horizon with sun light illuminating from behind a hole in the clouds, lighting up the edges of the clouds encasing the hole. A dark blue ocean lies below.

When Greek Goddesses Come to Visit They Cause Some Drama at Manzanita

A remarkable phenomenon occurs every once in a while here. Have you ever heard of the Belt of Venus? Me neither, but let me explain. As the sun sets (or rises, depending on which horizon you are looking at), the sunlight reflecting off the dense atmosphere creates a backscattering effect. This backscattering creates a pink band of light (some say it is like the belt worn by the goddess Aphrodite, who is the counterpart of Venus – why they didn’t call it the Belt of Aphrodite, I don’t know. I digress). Some nights, it is subtle, but on this night, drama ensues.

A dark blue sky bleeds into cobalt, and shades of turquoise crashing against pinks and oranges in a Belt of Venus phenomenon over the ocean after the sun has set.

Mirror, Mirror..

Reflections play a large part in my photography. Catching a reflection and the image in that mirror has always intrigued me. Part of me wonders (or likes to perhaps pretend) that there is a living world in that reflection that we are privy to at particular moments in time. We can catch a glimpse into that other world that holds an entirely different story. I’ve always wanted to write a novel. Perhaps this will be the start.

A groups of sea gulls is taking flight from the beach that holds a mirror image of the sunset with dark foreboding clouds up high and the sun just resting on the horizon. You can see this scene in the wet sand of the beach - even the reflection of the birds taking flight.

A mirrored image of pink tinged clouds with a window in the middle showing blue sky and Neakahnie Mountain on the right side of the image.

Dark image of the sun setting over the ocean with large black clouds meeting in the middle breaking to deep blue skies above and an orange glow on the horizon all reflected in the wet beach.

Alas, we have come to an end. I wouldn’t say I like a lot of drama in life, especially as I’ve gotten older (or gotten old, as my boys would say – grrr). As with most things, there are exceptions, and I make a significant exception for drama in sunsets. Good night, my sweet friends. May these images sail you to wonderful, wild dreams.

A blue-hued ocean sunset from a high viewpoint overlooking silken blue soft waves with dark clouds of blue on the horizon. The sunlight streaks from the sun in pale yellow behind a black cloud with a sky full of yellow to shades of blue clouds up high.

A dark sunset with the sun hanging above the horizon above a bank of clouds that are sitting on the ocean's edge. The sun reflects down the water and onto the beach with silhouetted grass in the foreground.

And as always, if you see something you just can’t live without or you would like to add some drama to your home (the good kind) visit the shop!

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