Things I'll Miss About Oregon: Volume 12 [Sitka Spruce]

When we got married a few years back, we spent our 'honeymoon' on the Oregon Coast in the nice little town of Manzanita. To get out to the Coast, you head west from Portland on Highway 26, up and over the Coast Range, until you hit Canon Beach and Highway 101. Right when you come down from the Coast Range, you hit a flat spot in the road. It's along this flat spot that you will find the World's Largest Sitka Spruce tree.

We had driven out to the Coast a bunch of times. I always contemplated, but never followed through on, stopping at the Sitka Spruce. Kimberly stopped once when she was like 12. On the way home from our honeymoon, I decided to pull into the parking lot. We spent about an hour just hanging out near the tree (it was a Wednesday and we were the only ones there), taking pictures, hiking around. It was pretty fun.

Sadly, on Sunday, the world's largest Sitka Spruce finally fell.

The tree was somewhere between 700 to 750 years old. 50 years ago, it was scarred by a lightning bolt. Then last year, during another storm, a giant chunk fell off, showing that the inside was rotting. The tree toppled this past weekend.

Kimberly in front of the Sitka Spruce. You can see the scar
from the lightning strike on the tree above.

No one really knew when the tree would fall because of the rotting wood. I think most people thought it would stay up a little longer than this.

Anyways, the Sitka Spruce is gone. It's kind of a sad day.

Kimberly pretending to be a hobbit under a
neighboring tree (this is not the Sitka Spruce)

Our First Snow of the Middle

A snowy creek in the woods behind our house.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, there was some strange noises coming from the bottom of the bed. At first, I though it was Miles chasing a rubber band or something. After a few minutes, I realized that something was tapping on the window.

Our backyard

When we rolled out of bed, we found the ground covered in snow and ice raining down from the skies. Kimberly was very excited. Though she has been in snow before, she's never been in an ice storm before. When we went for a walk later in the afternoon, Kimberly was completely enthralled with the icy trees and frozen forest. I have to admit that it's pretty beautiful when the trees are all covered in ice and everything kind of twinkles in the light. It's not as fun when the trees start losing limbs under the weight of the ice.


Some pics of the ice and snow here (obviously), some on Flickr (if you're interested).

Our apartment is right behind this tree. Ain't the building lovely.