Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9

Ashland is a beautiful little town, comfortably nestling in love natural environment.  The best aspect of that was that the downtown main street intersect with a lovely creek, around which was a large Lithia Park, which not only delighted visitors, but served as homes to many wonderful animals.

There were two ponds in the park - Lower and Upper Ponds, connected by the creek.  There were fish, ducks and turtles lived there:



















I was able to capture the sight of three little turtles coming out of the water to sun bath.  They stayed there without moving for a long time:









In the drier part of the park, I saw a several deer enjoying their meals, happy, content and peaceful, without an iota fear of people:













Related articles:
--> Coastal Northern California and Wine Country - Oregon Trip, Part 11 (The End)

--> Arcata, California - Oregon Trip, Part 10
--> Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9
--> Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8
--> Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part7
--> It Got Better - Three Plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Oregon Trip, Part 6
--> Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5
--> Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4
--> A Night at McCloud, California - Oregon Trip, Part 3
--> Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Shasta County, California - Oregan Trip, Part 2
--> Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California - Oregon Trip, Part 1

Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8

There were many interesting shops, street art and art galleries in Ashland, Oregon.  It was obvious that people there took great pride in their aesthetics and the presentation of themselves.  Strolling in Ashland was very pleasant therefore and window browsing brought me many surprises.

One of the window shops featured some lovely intriguing shaped lamps and they positively glowed in the evenings and were great enticement for customers.





Other shop - antiques and crafts vied with understated offerings and always interesting and never vulgar:





Well, almost.  This one below is nothing but vulgarity.  It was in a shop full of Chihuly wares, therefore, it was almost mandatory:



But please don't be put off by this silly offering.  Almost next door to it, there was a very serious art gallery - Hanson Howard Gallery, which showcased wonderful oil paintings by nationally renown artists.  The exhibition was "Lost and Found" with paintings by Bobbie Jansen and sculptures by Nelson Davis below.  I particularly love those oil paintings for the composition, the palette, and the ways the paintings were applied. 

Hopscotch, Oil on canvas, 16" X 20" / Distilled Despair, Oil on canvas, 24" X 18" / Two Chair Abstraction, Oil on canvas, 24" X 18"

Morning Candlelight, Oil on canvas, 20" X 20"



I also love the oil paintings by Carol Ingram in the second room of the gallery - they were hauntingly luminous:



Tall Rocks, oil on canvas, 16" X 20" / Waiting, oil on canvas, 24" X 36" / Woman, oil on canvas, 10" X 12"

Indeed there were art work of all levels in every corner of the main streets, such as the dragonfly and the geese in a restaurant and the sculptures and art fountain in the main square below:





 





Even a window in the best coffee house in town (or anywhere), Nobel Coffee, looked like a piece of art:



I was quite satisfied.



Related articles:
--> Coastal Northern California and Wine Country - Oregon Trip, Part 11 (The End)

--> Arcata, California - Oregon Trip, Part 10
--> Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9
--> Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8
--> Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part7
--> It Got Better - Three Plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Oregon Trip, Part 6
--> Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5
--> Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4
--> A Night at McCloud, California - Oregon Trip, Part 3
--> Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Shasta County, California - Oregan Trip, Part 2
--> Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California - Oregon Trip, Part 1

Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 7

During our stay in Ashland, we took a day trip to the renown Crater Lake.  Before we arrived at our destination, we stopped by the "Natural Bridge" at the upper Rogue River for a short while.














The Rogue River was a large rapids and a lovely one.  The wonderful thing to see here is the water had created courses underneath large rocks therefore the "natural bridges".  We saw clearly how the water came out of and flew into "caves".













After we'd left the Natural Bridge, we continued to climb up to more than 8,000 feet elevation and arrived at the Crater Lake.








Wikipedia described the lake as:

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m) deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years.

It was breathtakingly beautiful, with its almost perfectly round shape, the incredible deep cobalt blue in the center and magically shimmering blue-green at the shallow water edges.  The Rocks surrounded the lake was strong and tough and we even saw some snow at the bottom of the rocks.











We also saw a cute chipmunk at the edge of the lake, posing for tourists.



































Related articles:
--> Coastal Northern California and Wine Country - Oregon Trip, Part 11 (The End)

--> Arcata, California - Oregon Trip, Part 10
--> Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9
--> Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8
--> Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part7--> It Got Better - Three Plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Oregon Trip, Part 6
--> Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5
--> Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4
--> A Night at McCloud, California - Oregon Trip, Part 3
--> Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Shasta County, California - Oregan Trip, Part 2
--> Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California - Oregon Trip, Part 1