We traveled to Oregon & California from April 3 to April 10, 2014. We parted on April 7. Jordan spent 6 more nights in California, while Rusty & Steve returned to Oregon for 4 more nights. Day 1 was spent driving from Seattle to Lincoln City, OR. We drove down I-5 to Kelso, where we first reached the Columbia River. We drove west from Kelso along the north bank of the river. It was a beautiful drive.
By the time we crossed the Columbia River at Astoria, it had begun to rain. We had lunch in Astoria. We stopped at an outlet mall, where we shopped at Eddie Bauer. Steve bought a red jacket, which he wore for the rest of the trip. We made a driving tour of Cannon Beach. But it was too wet & windy to walk outside, or take pictures. After a long day, we arrived in Lincoln City. We had an excellent dinner at the Blackfish Cafe.
The Sandcastle, our motel on the beach in Lincoln City.
On the morning of Day 2, we awoke to a partially sunny sky & no rain. We proceeded joyfully down the Oregon coast. We stopped at Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area. The tide was low, so there was very little wave action in the punchbowl. But the views of the coast were spectacular. We had breakfast at Pig 'N Pancake in Newport. It was not very good. We visited the nearby Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. That truly was outstanding, one of the best experiences of our travels. We looking in tide pools at Cobble Beach & saw harbor seals resting on the rocky islets. Next we toured the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, near the Yaquina Bay Bridge.
We continued south on the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) to Waldport, where we had lunch at Grand Central Pizza. We did not have pizza, but fish sandwiches. We stopped at the Cape Perpetua Special Interest Area, where we saw Devil's Churn & the Spouting Horn. We were able to walk down a steep path & stairway to Devil's Churn. That was very interesting. We saw the Spouting Horn from an overlook. Jordan was lucky to get a picture of the spout, which was tricky.
Our next stop was Heceta Head. There was a beautiful beach & a path up through the forest to the light keeper's house & then to the light above that. It had become quite cloudy by that time & there was a light, misty rain at times.
The beach at Heceta Head, with the light keeper's house above.
The view from Heceta Head Light
Heceta Head Light
We stopped to see cobra lilies (Darlingtonia californica) in a bog at Darlingtonia State Natural Site. It was very near the highway & a short distance on a path & boardwalk. Cobra lilies are carnivorous plants. We had hoped to walk among the dunes at the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. But it was raining by the time we got there. We saw them from the parking lot, a quick stop with nice views of the dunes.
Cobra lilies (Darlingtonia californica)
Oregon Dunes
And then we finally made it to our motel in Coos Bay, OR. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant called EZ Thai. Downtown Coos Bay was very lively on a Friday night. It was the largest town we had seen since we left Astoria, the day before. The Oregon coast is thinly populated.
Here are more photos from Oregon & California.
Here are more photos from Oregon & California.
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