As seen from our balcony this morning (low tide, of course):
I am becoming obsessed with sighting a migrating whale. Every time we are near the ocean we scan it for tell tale spouts of water, but see nothing but false alarms. Each partially submerged rock and long floating strand of kelp raises false hopes. We are not alone. The beaches and look-outs are filled with hopeful whale spotters.
Battery Point Lighthouse was only a couple blocks from our room, so we began the morning adding another lighthouse to Tom’s lighthouse photo collection. You can walk to the light house at low tide.
Route 101 in Oregon has a new nickname and fancy signs. It is now called The Pacific Coast Scenic By-Way.
We did notice that one of the state rest areas had WiFi—yeah Oregon! Now if they would just start putting more restrooms at their scenic stops like California…
Next we stopped at Samuel Boardman State Park’s Lone Ranch Beach. It was another really great beach. We saw backpackers hiking along the edge of the beach. It seemed they were on a long trip carrying all their gear. Tom said he thought that next year instead of driving the West Coast, we should hike it. I ignored him. No whales.
Before coming into the city of Gold Beach we saw signs for a visitors’ information center, and decided to stop. The information guy was so enthusiastic and really high on Oregon. He certainly had the right job! He gave us some good information on sights to see and a couple of off the main route detours to try. He also told Tom he had to visit some Oregon wineries and gave him a book that listed all of them.
We went down to the beach by the visitors’ center. I was surprised to find that it was gravel. Walking on a thick layer of gravel over the shifting sand to get to the water is an experience. But the beach had a wonderful hard-packed sand area nearer the water, and we spent some time just walking and watching the waves. We had been a little warm in the car, but were wishing we had brought jackets to the beach. We keep forgetting how much colder it is by the ocean, especially if it is windy, which seems to be most of the time.
I had seen a travel magazine article on Cape Blanco State Park and wanted to see the “chalky cliffs”. It is a really neat view, with another light house for Tom,
South of Bandon we saw cranberry bogs that were actually flooded. When we toured Maine years ago we were disappointed to find that the bogs are not flooded the entire growing season, but only before harvest.
This area around Bandon is a big cranberry growing region, like New England.
In Brandon we checked out the waterfront and Old Town. Old Town is an area of shops, cafes, and other neat little places. There were tons of arts and craft places. All of the food places advertise clam chowder and crab, so we were not even tempted.
We took one of the detours suggested at the visitor’s center toward the city of Charleston. This took us by some of Oregon’s managed forest land. Oregon has more timber now than when the first explorers came into the state. For each tree cut for lumber, five new ones must be planted, by state law. Some of the hillsides we passed had been clear cut in the past, but were replanted. In some cases the trees have reached a respectable size, other fields have trees only a couple of feet high. The trees are being planted and grown as a crop, for harvest when large enough. Then that area will be replanted. It sounds like an excellent idea, but does require some long range planning—not exactly an annual crop!
As we got our first glimpse of Oregon Dunes National Park, I realized I might have to change my mind about dunes. These are spectacular. There are full grown fir trees on some of them, and around them, and the dunes dwarf the trees. I was amazed at the size. The guide book says some are 500 feet tall. We hope to get a better view of them tomorrow.
Battery Point Lighthouse was only a couple blocks from our room, so we began the morning adding another lighthouse to Tom’s lighthouse photo collection. You can walk to the light house at low tide.
There is a wonderful city park around the lighthouse, and a short scenic drive around the bay. Finishing our scenic drive, we came upon several sea gulls in the street. They were not about to move even when Tom pulled up to within a few feet of them. They glanced over, paused a bit, then slowly sauntered to the side. Not a one took flight. I think they may be a little to blasé about humans.
In the park we talked with a man sitting on a bench hand feeding squirrels. They sat beside him on the bench, and even crawled up, sat on his leg and took peanuts from his hand. A sea gull sat on a nearby post and eyed the proceedings—maybe thinking he should get equal treatment.
We stopped to fill up the car just before the Oregon border. (Big mistake—No one told us gas was much cheaper in Oregon and we obviously should have asked.) There were slot machines in the gas station itself, and two well worn older folks feeding them the entire time we were inside. It sounded like they were regulars.
In the park we talked with a man sitting on a bench hand feeding squirrels. They sat beside him on the bench, and even crawled up, sat on his leg and took peanuts from his hand. A sea gull sat on a nearby post and eyed the proceedings—maybe thinking he should get equal treatment.
We stopped to fill up the car just before the Oregon border. (Big mistake—No one told us gas was much cheaper in Oregon and we obviously should have asked.) There were slot machines in the gas station itself, and two well worn older folks feeding them the entire time we were inside. It sounded like they were regulars.
We had to stop and pose by the “Welcome to Oregon” sign. I had never been in the state before, Tom only on a short business trip for IBM a long, long, long time ago.
Route 101 in Oregon has a new nickname and fancy signs. It is now called The Pacific Coast Scenic By-Way.We did notice that one of the state rest areas had WiFi—yeah Oregon! Now if they would just start putting more restrooms at their scenic stops like California…
Next we stopped at Samuel Boardman State Park’s Lone Ranch Beach. It was another really great beach. We saw backpackers hiking along the edge of the beach. It seemed they were on a long trip carrying all their gear. Tom said he thought that next year instead of driving the West Coast, we should hike it. I ignored him. No whales.
We did not make very good time on Route 101, as we stopped at several pull-offs and scenic viewpoints. Each was incredible in its own way. The Oregon coast is amazing. There are many freestanding rock columns and hill-type formations, both on the beaches and far out in the ocean.
Scenic Pulloff on Route 101: (no whales)
Scenic Pulloff on Route 101: (no whales)
Myers Creek Beach: (no whales)
Before coming into the city of Gold Beach we saw signs for a visitors’ information center, and decided to stop. The information guy was so enthusiastic and really high on Oregon. He certainly had the right job! He gave us some good information on sights to see and a couple of off the main route detours to try. He also told Tom he had to visit some Oregon wineries and gave him a book that listed all of them.
We went down to the beach by the visitors’ center. I was surprised to find that it was gravel. Walking on a thick layer of gravel over the shifting sand to get to the water is an experience. But the beach had a wonderful hard-packed sand area nearer the water, and we spent some time just walking and watching the waves. We had been a little warm in the car, but were wishing we had brought jackets to the beach. We keep forgetting how much colder it is by the ocean, especially if it is windy, which seems to be most of the time.
I had seen a travel magazine article on Cape Blanco State Park and wanted to see the “chalky cliffs”. It is a really neat view, with another light house for Tom,
but neither of us saw anything that looked like chalky cliffs.
South of Bandon we saw cranberry bogs that were actually flooded. When we toured Maine years ago we were disappointed to find that the bogs are not flooded the entire growing season, but only before harvest.This area around Bandon is a big cranberry growing region, like New England.
In Brandon we checked out the waterfront and Old Town. Old Town is an area of shops, cafes, and other neat little places. There were tons of arts and craft places. All of the food places advertise clam chowder and crab, so we were not even tempted.
We took one of the detours suggested at the visitor’s center toward the city of Charleston. This took us by some of Oregon’s managed forest land. Oregon has more timber now than when the first explorers came into the state. For each tree cut for lumber, five new ones must be planted, by state law. Some of the hillsides we passed had been clear cut in the past, but were replanted. In some cases the trees have reached a respectable size, other fields have trees only a couple of feet high. The trees are being planted and grown as a crop, for harvest when large enough. Then that area will be replanted. It sounds like an excellent idea, but does require some long range planning—not exactly an annual crop!
As we got our first glimpse of Oregon Dunes National Park, I realized I might have to change my mind about dunes. These are spectacular. There are full grown fir trees on some of them, and around them, and the dunes dwarf the trees. I was amazed at the size. The guide book says some are 500 feet tall. We hope to get a better view of them tomorrow.
We checked into our motel in Reedsport, rested up a little, then headed out to Umpqua River Lighthouse to see the sunset.
There is a triangular jetty that extends from the beach out into the ocean at the mouth of the Umpqua River in front of the lighthouse. We watched the sun set over the jetty and took tons of pictures.
No whales.
There is a triangular jetty that extends from the beach out into the ocean at the mouth of the Umpqua River in front of the lighthouse. We watched the sun set over the jetty and took tons of pictures.No whales.
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