Indian Creek and Rogue River, Best Picture I have ever taken of an Osprey

Gold Beach, Oregon

This is the bridge I have to cross a couple of times each day as I take the doggies on their walk.  The RV Park gives you three options as to “where to walk the dogs”, and this is the best option.  Tried the option across the street today, and it just is not good.  There is another option in the back of the park near the tents…but I still feel walking over Indian Creek is the best.

This is a shot of Indian Creek while on the bridge…not much of a creek right now, but during the “wet season” or a good rain storm, it does get pretty high.  Up stream about 1/3 of a mile is the Indian Creek Salmon Hatchery, which had its beginnings in 1906 by Robert Deniston Hume, and was completely operated and finance by the Hume family for many years.  In 1926 the State of Oregon ran the hatchery, but closed it in the mid-1930’s.  In 1983 the Knox family, (Bob, Charles and Scott), built a hatchery building, received approximately 200,000 “eyed” eggs from the Cole River Hatchery, which were hatched young fish were eventually released through a pipe into Indian Creek. When the salmon returned years later, some pairs were kept at the hatchery, some were transported further up Indian Creek, and others were transported to various creeks feeding the lower Rogue River.  Today the hatchery is a joint effort of the State of Oregon and the Curry Anadromous Fishermen who, with others, volunteer over 4,000 hours per year in the hatchery.

Took me a little walk towards the hatchery…and saw some signs in the distance.

    

Well, it looks like they don’t mind having visitors when the know the visitors are coming…otherwise, stay away…so I turned around and walked back to the RV Park.

Monday afternoon when I took the dogs for a walk, I saw this Osprey nest up in a tall tree…at the time the adult Osprey was in another tree.  Today, I caught it sitting near the nest.  On my way back from the road to the hatchery, I caught it in the nest.  There was a lot of noise coming from the nest, but I did not see any of the young ones…but I am certain they are there.

Despite having lots of Osprey in Florida where we live…this is the best picture I have ever taken of one.  It is a beauty.

    

Across the street from the RV Park entrance (picture upper left) is a turnout and parking area with access to the Rogue River for fisherman and hikers (picture upper right).  So before I went walking toward the fish hatchery, I decided to take a walk to Rogue River.  Glad to see the Rotary Sign at the entrance to forest infested trail down to the river, with blackberry vines all along the way.  

Fairly quickly came to a “Y” intersection…decided to take the left turn instead of the right turn.  After walking a long ways, and passing this Rotary Bench, which is turned facing a bunch of brush for some odd reason, I realized about halfway there that it was headed to the Rogue River Bridge in Gold Beach, .8 miles from the RV Park.  So I turned around, and when I got the bench, I took a little rest despite the board holding up the back of the bench.

Got back to the “Y” intersection and took the right path, which turned out to be the right path to take…soon I was at river’s edge.  The Rogue River is a river we are familiar with…just not here near the Pacific Ocean.  Back in 2012, we were camping in Prospect Oregon…and on a walk, Skruffy fell into the Rogue River.  Thank goodness she was on leash, and she swam back to shore and I was able to help her back up out of the water.  Cold and scared, she shook it off. 

It is Salmon season, and there are lots of fisherman around.  Heard a number of boats while walking along the river, but this is the only one I saw.

In the picture above, the water to the far right is Indian Creek, as it enter into the much larger Rogue River.  Found a log to sit on and just enjoyed the view for a bit.  Only problem was…the log was very close to the ground…not the easiest position to try and get one’s self up from, but since the only three people I saw down at the river walking had already left, I pretty much just made a fool of myself getting up to myself.  Of course, I wouldn’t have asked for help had anyone been around…just thankful they were gone.  Note to self:  “Next time you sit on a log, be sure it is a larger log about the height of a chair”