Secret Beach

Secret Beach earns its name: no sign, no designated parking, a quarter-mile trail through coastal forest that deposits you on a beach of sea stacks and Pacific horizon that most visitors to the Oregon Coast never find. The Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor is among the most beautiful stretches of coastline in North America, and Secret Beach is its quiet argument for why the coast rewards those who stop and walk. This panorama was shot at low tide in the early morning, the sea stacks casting long shadows toward the camera, the forest above the tideline still in shadow. That particular diffuse silver of the Pacific Northwest morning — the quality of light the Oregon coast specializes in — is what makes large-scale printing of a panorama like this meaningful.