Wonders of the west. (LA to PNW and back)

[Southwest Dave]

September 28th

We woke this morning to the sound of the ocean waves crashing onto the beach although we couldn't see it, so it was time for a walk. It wasn't far down a path to Benson Beach where there were expansive sands to walk on, once you had made your way past the driftwood. Up on the hill you could see North hill lighthouse and once again it was a glorious morning.



After breakfast we drove around this lovely park and stopped at Waikiki beach for another walk and to see the spot where the Columbia river finally spills into the Pacific ocean having travelled some 1243 miles through Canada and the USA. There were quite a few ships and fishing vessels heading in and out of the estuary, which has a shifting sand bar that can make it tricky to negotiate and has been responsible for a few shipwrecks, earning it the reputation as the 'Graveyard for ships'.



With a few places to visit today and some slow miles ahead it was time to leave and start heading south down the coast on 101. We passed Fort Columbia and through the small town of McGowan before pulling off the road alongside the Columbia river to enjoy views of the Astoria-Megler bridge that would take us over the river and across the State line from Washington back into Oregon.



From the Oregon side in Astoria.


We continued across Youngs Bay and through Gearhart to the town of Seaside where we looked around the little shops and visited the 'End of the Trail' Lewis and Clark statue before continuing to Cannon beach with it's lovely golden sands and the infamous 'Haystack rock'. It was a beautiful sunny warm day with a nice breeze, ideal for beach walking

Seaside.


Cannon beach.


From Cannon Beach we drove to Oswald west State park and stopped at Neahkhanie mountain viewpoint, one of the highest spots on the Oregon coast.



There is just so much to see and do along the Oregon coast, so we were soon back on the road to the little town of Nehalam harbour where we looked around the quaint stores, walked along the river and bought some lunch, which we ate a little way down the road on Rockaway beach while enjoying views of the Twin rock arches just off shore. After lunch we had to make up a bit of time so it was straight down 101 through Tillamook and Beaver to Lincoln beach.

Nehalem


We stopped south of Lincoln at Boiler Bay viewpoint, with the intention of having a 5 min break to take in the views and stretch our legs, but that idea soon went out the window. As with all trips, the unexpected is to be expected and we were absolutely blown away by the pod of whales that were putting on a display close to shore, especially for us of course ! This was a first for us and it was an incredible sight as they breached and blew water below us, I wish I had better pictures, but it was difficult and I really wanted to enjoy the moment. It was almost an hour before we were back on the road and we were all buzzing !

Whale !

[Harry Kline]

Ah, you're back, and with great whale pictures. That offshore "blow" you caught was a beauty and very hard to get. I took a whale watch tour out of Depoe Bay just south of Boiler Bay last year, but didn't get any shots as good as yours. Congratulations on your luck!

[Southwest Dave]

Back again, it's been busy ! Thanks Harry, we were very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

We continued south through Depoe Bay to Rocky Creek State park where we took a little detour onto the Otter crest Loop, a one way road that has good coastal views above Cape Foulweather to Otter Crest State wayside. Fortunately the one way section takes a southerly direction so no back tracking for us. A further small detour takes you to the Devils Punchbowl which is a large sandstone cauldron that fills with sea water through the arch as the tide comes in. Unfortunately the tide was out when we there and we didn't have the time to walk down into the cauldron which is an advantage of low tide, but it was still pretty neat to look down into it from the cliff edge.

Devils Punchbowl.


It didn't take long to get back on 101 and make our way south through Newport and over the pretty Yaquina Bay Bridge. The bridge stands 136ft above sea level and spans 3260ft across the Bay, it opened in 1936 and was put on the National register of Historic places in 2005, one of Oregon's finest.

We then has another quick 'Pit stop' at Seal Rocks Sate park.


Once we had driven through Yachats we soon arrived at Cape Perpetua, a wonderful section of coastline with a number of interesting spots such as Devils Churn, Thor's Well and Cummins bridge Creek. It was a shame that we were not here to witness high tide when the waves crash into the Devils Churn and send the waves crashing skywards, or Thor's well [aka the Spouting horn] as the tide fills the hole and then the power of the Ocean pushes it out again. Never the less it was still a wonderful place to visit.

Devils Churn.


It was time to move on towards our destination for the night, as the daylight began to fade we made one last stop to enjoy views of Heceta head Lighthouse from a pull out. We got an added bonus of Sea Lions playing in the surf down in the bay below.

Heceta head Lighthouse.


Sea Lions.


We past the Sea Lion caves and drove over the Suislaw river at Florence and into the Jessie M Honeyman State park where we were camping for the night. We arrived at 7:30pm and having found our campsite we set about lighting a campfire and getting dinner on the go. We had a lovely evening with a couple of beers sitting around the campfire and toasting the Marshmallows for some more Smores !

Sunset on Hwy101.


Making Smores.


Todays mileage. 208. Total 2457 miles.

[Southwest Dave]

September 29th.

Jessie M Honeyman SP is just north of Dunes City and unsurprisingly, the sand dunes are it's main attraction but also has 2 freshwater lakes. It is separated from the ocean by 2 miles of dunes. So this morning after getting ready for the day ahead, we went hiking around the area. It was tough going at times with steep climbs in soft fine sand, but it was very rewarding.





We spent a couple of hours 'playing' in the sand before heading back to the RV, drinking a coffee and hitting the highway once again. We headed through Gardiner and alongside the Umpqua river before crossing over it towards Winchester Bay and down to Hauser. We then stopped at the David Dewett Veteran memorial which is right by the highway and alongside the river. It has nice views of Sand Dunes in one direction and the McCullough Memorial bridge that spans Coo's Bay in the other. The bridge itself is a wonderful piece of architecture and spans for 5,305ft over the bay, the longest in the State when built in 1936 and was a bit of a master class in engineering, as the busy waterway had to be kept open throughout construction.

Here you can see the bridge in the background.




It was time to continue south and make our way across Coos Bay to North Bend where there were huge ships in dock stacked full of lumber.

McCullough Memorial bridge.




By the time we got to Bandon we were getting hungry so we stopped at the Station Restaurant for lunch, Omelette and hash browns which were huge and very tasty ! Bandon is a nice Oceanside town with shops and beaches and located where the Coquille river pours into the Pacific. We head into town and drive down the Bandon beach loop drive which offers nice views of the Coquille river lighthouse and Coquille Bay.





As we headed back to Hwy101 south we enjoyed many great coastal views as we drove through Humbug mountain and Sisters Rock SP's and over the Rogue river into Gold beach. Our next stop was at Kissing rock and it's lovely sandy beach just south of town near Hunters Creek. Along this stretch there had been miles of cloud developing out to sea which took on a rather distinctive shape of a huge wave, in Tsunami territory !

'Tsunami cloud' at Kissing Rock.


We then stopped at Myers Beach north near the Pistol River followed by Arch rock on Windy corner and probably the nicest of all, Natural Bridges.

Arch rock.


Natural bridges.


Back on the road we headed through Brookings and crossed the State line back into California and on to our campground for the night, the Elk country RV resort south of Orick, arriving after dark once again. A nice 'home' cooked meal and a couple of beers followed and we were ready for bed. The Oregon coast was quite amazing but try and do much more than a couple of hundred miles a day means you will miss out on a lot of great places, we only just skimmed the surface.

Todays miles 230. Total 2687 miles.

[Southwest Dave]

Here's another shot from the road of the 'Tsunami cloud'. At times it really did look like a wave to the eye. [Glad it wasn't!]



Dave.

[Harry Kline]

Here's another shot from the road of the 'Tsunami cloud'. At times it really did look like a wave to the eye. [Glad it wasn't!]



Dave.

Dave, your Tsunami cloud is actually a roll cloud. I once saw one in southeast Nebraska, but they usually form over water, as yours did. I believe they are quite common in Australia.

Harry

[Lifemagician]

I believe they are quite common in Australia.
Harry

I had never heard the term.

The only time I have seen anything like it was in the early 80's when a dust cloud rolled over Victoria and Melbourne, completely blocking out the light. It's approach looked like the said photo. I have some fantastic posters, taken from the top of the (then) newspaper building.

Lifey

[Harry Kline]

Lifey,

I wrote a column about the roll clouds, (a.k.a. Morning Glory clouds) a few years ago. They certainly are a strange phenomena, and they stretch for miles, as you can see.

Harry

[Southwest Dave]

That's a cool link Harry and yes this one was several miles long. To be perfectly honest I didn't know these cloud formations were named as such, we just let our imagination run wild after seeing all the Tsunami escape route maps posted in the coastal towns and therefor just named it the 'Tsunami cloud'. Ha !

Dave.

[Southwest Dave]

September 30th.

The Elk Creek RV resort certainly lived up to it's name ! On opening the door this morning to the familiar sound of Elk mating season, there was a big herd of them strung out around the campground. I went out with my camera and observed them from a safe distance as a big male became aware of another male sniffing around on his turf with a stand off and chase ensuing. The 'ladies' did not seem to bothered by the fuss and carried on grazing. Two young males [perhaps brothers] were locking Antlers and jousting to hone their skills in a friendly fashion, although I presume they will both be looking to becoming a predominant male in the future. There was total silence other than the 'click-clack' of their Antlers echoing around the woods as they made contact. I went for a circular walk around the lake but my route was cut off by another herd of Elk blocking the trail, with one rather huge Male staring at me with a puffed out chest and those expressionless black eyes not giving any clue to his thoughts. I decided to go back the way I had came !





The resort had a mixed bag of reviews, but I really liked it's rustic charm from a camping point of view. It had a few old 'out' buildings, an old fire truck and many wood creations from carvings to a 'Flintstone type' car made from timbers. As much as we enjoyed watching the Elk it was time to move on, well after waiting for an inquisitive young male to let me out the campsite. For a while I thought he was going to damage the vehicle with his Antlers while shaking his head, as he got to within a couple of feet of me trying to get back in the vehicle.

Back on the road we first headed north back up Hwy 101 through Berry Glen to drive the Newton B Drury scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek Redwood State park, a small detour off 101 that we didn't have enough time for when driving through yesterday. It was a wonderful drive among these Redwood giants with lots of groves to stop, admire and walk among.



Our next stop we were hoping to be the Lady Bird Johnson grove on Bald Hills road. The reason I said "Hoping" was because we had heard that the road is narrow and winding, the parking lot small and beyond that the road was not suitable for RV's and was one way traffic. We climbed up the steep twisty road until we found the parking area. It looked full and there was a huge fire truck in there as well with a full crew, we thought it might be an exercise. We had to drive in to try and turn around and then I spotted a small space that just didn't look as though it would take the RV, I am happy to say it did after a bit of maneuvering ! As we got out another smaller fire unit arrived, shortly followed by another, there must have been 20 fireman on scene, the next thing we heard the chief saying to close the car park down and not to allow anyone else in, we then smelt smoke in the air, nope it wasn't an exercise. We were allowed on the trail while they were searching for the source of the smoke, talk about lucky timing ! As we walked through this beautiful Grove of trees we saw small crews searching, tying ribbons on branches to mark the route they had taken. Then a spotter plane arrived, I don't think the pilot had been out the office for a while !! He was carrying out some amazing manoeuvres as we caught glimpses of him skimming the tree tops and he sounded like a WWII pilot. Although it was an added bit of excitement it was also a serious business and we were pleased to hear that they had found the source and were dealing with it by the time we had returned to the RV.

Ladybird Johnson Grove.





Despite the small road there were quite a few logging trucks using it, heading up the hill empty and coming back down full which was quite a challenge. We followed one back down and you could see how challenging it was for the driver and he probably does it most days. It was steep enough in places to keep in 1st gear and have to work the brakes in the RV. Back on Hwy 101 south we managed to pass him and enjoy the road ahead.



It wasn't long before we were passing Elk Creek again and enjoying the views of Humboltd Lagoons State park before driving around Arcata Bay and through Eureka before detouring to the lovely Victorian town of Ferndale, a place I had wanted to visit for quite some time. First we crossed the historic Fern Bridge over the Eel river, the last bridge crossing before it spills into the Pacific ocean, and then through farmland in the Eel river valley. The town was wonderful with it's immaculately kept streets and Victorian buildings and we enjoyed lunch in the RV in the City park after walking around.

Fern Bridge. A tight[ish] squeeze when truck meets RV.


After lunch we headed down to Humboltd Redwoods State park and our much awaited drive through the 'Avenue of the Giants'. It was a beautiful drive through the Redwood Groves and small towns with little Gift shops and attractions like the 'Tree of Eternity' along the route. One town in particular had a rather sweet smell drifting in the air and a few people looked a little to 'Chilled out' if you know what I mean ! Happy days.

Ave of Giants.




DSCF3413

Once we had got back on to the 101 it was only about 40mins from our campground for the night but on the way we stopped at the 'Legend of Bigfoot' store and although it was a bit of a tacky tourist attraction, it was still pretty cool. We arrived at the Redwoods river resort at 6pm [not bad for us !] and ended up chatting with the lady at the desk for quite a while, she was from Manchester in England so we got her up to speed with what was happening in ' Blighty' while she told us about all the things she missed at home despite loving her life here. We rounded off the day with 'Bangers and Mash' around the campfire with, yep you guessed it, a couple of beers.

Todays Miles 178. Total 2865 miles.