Coos Bay OR, South Slough Estuary

here we have privacy bushes!

After getting settled in here at Coos Bay, we had to go for a hike of course.  We went to the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.  Hows that for a mouth full??  It is an estuary not too far from here with a wonderful trail system.  An estuary is where the sea water comes inland and mixes with the fresh water so it has its own ecosystem of course.  And there were some interesting things there:

visitors center at the South Slough Estuary

tiny little mushrooms!

these huge leafy plants are skunk cabbage.....

yep, they are called that cause they smell like skunk...phew!

this was called the tunnel trail and you can see why!

we could actually see the tide slowly coming in

not clear but can you see the woodpecker?

by gosh, it's a newt!  I was hoping we would see one and was very excited when Mike spotted him!

the trail took us through all different types of areas as you can see

these are also mushrooms