Esoteric New Ways to Look at Beaverton, in Oregon's Washington County
Published 07/22/2012

(Beaverton, Oregon) – This satellite city of Portland often gets maligned by the cool-obsessed, hipster-conscious demographics of the Rose City, getting frowned upon by both sides of the river. But a little less traffic during rush hour and a lot more trees and sense of open places never hurt anyone, so those on the eastern edge of Washington County are willing to trade the greenery for the jabs.
Still, even most Beavertonians don't always know what lies around them – at least at certain hours. Like nighttime. For some reason, more so than eastward into Portland proper, the skies take on a reddish hue at night in Beaverton. The clouds get painted by some light sources from the ground that create this fascinating, esoteric and yet beautiful effect.

Like the sizable park in downtown Beaverton: Griffith Park. It floods like crazy during the winter, and this somewhat sunken grassy plain can become a sizable lake, with the water trapped by its more elevated borders. But it's here where spring, summer and fall make for wondrous, ethereal views at night, given the right conditions.

Those massive urban green spaces off Jenkins and Merlo roads provide plenty of hiking opportunties during the day. But summer nights can make it look like another world.

A recent construction project off Canyon Road looked a bit more like a spooky castle in some alternate reality during early winter 2012.

Winter really brings out the Christmas to Beaverton as well, such as here, at the massive sprawling park next to the Beaverton City Library. It literally becomes a kind of winter wonderland.

Spring post-dusk skies yielded this awe-inspiring scene in downtown Beaverton this year, which was what some lucky folks saw while waiting in line at a Mexican cart off Murray Boulevard.

Those massive amounts of trees, a full moon and some interesting effects from streetlights came together in summer 2011 to create some remarkable amounts in an unusual summer fog.
Below: daytime clouds in Beaverton created this oddity and monstrosity recently. Plenty of creep factor here, but you can't dismiss its strange beauty and astounding coincidence.

|