We never made it up there last year, but Karen's plan to make it a party and 'toast to the tower' got 8 of us on the move. We hiked up after sunset and stayed until dark.
I had often thought of seeing all 8 beams from below the tower, but never about the brilliance of the lens. Every prism above the beam was a brilliant starburst of light that intensified as it grew darker.
The beams themselves were so far above our heads, about 100 feet, that they couldn't be seen on the ocean at all only on the headlands around us.
We never could really see all 8 beams as I thought, just 5-7 at a time. More became visible over the ocean as it got darker. The stars put on a show for us too, first the Big Dipper was hanging right above the tower and then the Milky Way became brilliant overhead. What an awesome experience!!!
My little camera did it's best here. You can see the beams moving across the hillside as the lens revolves. It was such fun to all raise our glasses to Lady Heceta who brought us all together from Texas, Kansas, Illinois and North Carolina to host and toast her legacy.
