Ok. So Oregon. Ridiculously it seems like a million years ago. But is only 2 weeks. Wow we are really moving through this country! And actually aren’t we feeling it!! We are all shattered!!
So Friday 3rd October we got to the Oregon Coast. We’d heard lots of lovely things about this place so we hoped it would be good but we had no idea how good!!! Wow wow wow. Not sure I will ever be able to describe it fully. Dramatic. Beautiful. Breathtaking. All of course helped along by the freakish sunshine they don’t normally experience this time of year – lucky us!!
Our first stop was Lincoln City. Slightly different from the English city that goes by the same name!! The sea at last… it feels we’ve been land locked forever. After prairies and mountains it’s a nice change. Aside from a very quick glimpse of the sea at Vancouver we really haven’t seen the sea for months!!We got onto Route 101, which will take us south all the way to LA now, assuming we don’t do a detour off it of course….
At the petrol station a man told John we had to visit Boiler Bay where he said we might spot whales. Apparently the grey whales that pass by here have the longest migration of any animal on earth going from the Bering Strait to Baja, California and back. We are now not exactly confidant that alleged wildlife spotting’s are going to actually result in anything but decided we may as well have our picnic lunch there as well as anywhere else.
We pulled into the layby and even before we’d parked we spotted about 3 whales not 50m out from the shoreline. (Delighted we’d spent a fortune on our whale boat trip back in Vancouver!!). We sat in the blazing sunshine eating our lunch and watched probably 20 of them go by!!
The coastline along here is absolutely stunning and we soon realised we couldn’t stop at every viewpoint as we just wouldn’t get anywhere. There are rocky outcrops and miles of sandy beaches, but the best bits on our first day there were the Devils Punch Bowl & Cape Foulweather where the collapsed sea cave makes the waves churn up inside it and makes for a very noisy and dramatic bit of coast!
We stopped for 2 nights near Newport at a State Park, South Beach. It really reminded us of Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg. We did pretty much here what we’d done there and that is hanging out at the beach. We walked down there on our first night and watched a couple of whales swim by as the sun set – amazing.
We had a great night that night with the kids quizzing us endlessly about outrageous things we’d done when we were younger. Obviously we only told them a small selection of stories but we ended up watching the video I had commissioned for John’s 40th which they loved. Mainly probably because all our friends are family are on it and it was lovely to see all your smiling faces. But also because they loved seeing themselves as 3 and 1 year olds. Couldn’t help but notice the striking resemblance between Will and a young John!!
The Saturday we spent the entire day on the beach sunbathing. Nestled in the sand dunes out of the wind was lovely. There were lots of kite surfers all along our beach, which made for a good bit of entertainment for us all. The kids and John spent hours making use of the wind and flying our kite – nearly took Charlie off his feet a few times. The waves were enormous and the water freezing so we did nothing more than paddle. Also slightly alarming are the endless signs warning of Tsunami’s.
On Sunday 5th we headed south a bit further on route 101. We drove through Yachats and the start of what is called the most beautiful part of the coast.
Once a series of volcanic intrusions that withstood the Pacific long enough to rise as ocean side peaks, they’ve left rock pools, rocky beaches and marine geysers blasting along the coast. It was the most dramatic bit of scenery so far I think. The Heceta Head light house (the most photographed lighthouse on the coast) and then stunning Cape Perpetua. We had lunch there and walked down the windy path onto the beach there where the kids spent a while rock pooling.
That evening we got down to Reedsport where we had been planning to explore the sand dunes by ATV. They call it Oregon’s Sahara and this 50 mile stretch of the coast has Oregon’s dunes. Some of them 500’ high and going inland up to 3 miles. Although much of them are hidden behind forests and cliffs they are stunning. Ended up staying in Winchester Bay at a campsite recommended by the nice man Daryl at the ATV place. He was closing up when we got there but said he would bring us some buggies the next day on his day off.
So Monday I was able to get a good few hours of school done with the kids with not too much complaining. What a great carrot those dune buggies were!!
Our 4 quad bikes were delivered to the campsite and after just a very brief lesson we headed off through the back of the campsite onto the dunes.
Will and Charlie had been given slightly different vehicles – with Will’s being the more powerful. But on the path TO the dunes he crashed it and couldn’t get it going again. Quick call to Daryl and he appeared 10 minutes later with a new one for him. Sadly this one was the same as Charlie’s little one and therefore nowhere near fast enough for Adrenaline Junky Wills. So guess who got booted off theirs?!? Yes that’s right. I ended up chugging along behind the rest of them on my tiny little buggy!!
Actually it was brilliant. John obviously was the only one who dared (or was allowed) to go up the 300’ dune and get the above great shot from the top!! Charlie surprised us all by being a natural and near enough keeping up with John and Will. I mainly took the pictures!!
After blasting through the dunes we headed off again early afternoon and through Coos Bay – once the largest timber port in the world apparently, which seemed incredible given how sleepy and little it seemed to us. Early evening we stopped in Bandon and had the most delicious fish and chips sat in the evening sun on their beautiful boardwalk. I’ve honestly never seen a nicer pier and boardwalk. All beautifully polished handrails and picturesque little harbour. It is incredibly calm and sheltered so there are hundreds of seals and sea lions living there which were fun to watch.
The last stretch of Oregon Coast we drove as the sunset. It was breathtaking. Even Will asked if we could stop to take a photo with his iPad (think this may be the only time this has happened other than when he grabs our camera to photograph a bird he’s spotted so he can email it to Pappy for identification purposes). Anyway, it was a very fitting end to our time on this most dramatic and beautiful of coastlines. So very very glad we detoured here to see it. With the sun down the mist rolled in and we drove into California able to see very little other than huge rocks just off shore through the mist – it felt like we were on a ship. Hoping the weather will improve!!
Wickenswanderings 