Category: Oregon
North, Central Oregon Coast — Day 4
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The alarm clock went off at 6am this morning. 20 minutes later we were having breakfast downstairs at our hotel. By 6:45am we had already left Portland and were on our way to the coast and Seaside. The plan was to start at the north of the state and work our way down to Florence, Oregon, about halfway down the coast. The idea was to see at least Cape Meares, Yaquina Head and Heceta Head Lighthouses.
Chapman Point at Ecola State Park
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Northern view of Ecola State Park
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Postcard: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
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Postcard: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
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As we had done the previous days, we drove through acres upon acres of trees and national parks. Around 8:15 we got into Ecola State Park where we saw our first views of the Oregon coast. The views were gorgeous, more spectacular than I had seen in pictures and imagined. We walked around the trails for a while, enjoyed the views, and eventually decided to make the Catslop loop that would take us to the closest lookout onto Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
Ultimately, despite walking for close to 2.5 tiring hours, we could not see the lighthouse, because it was unbearably foggy. I think the visibility could not have been more than 15 feet. Tired, we returned to the car in search of haystack rock and some food.
We drove a few miles south to Cannon Beach and had to walk as close as we could to the haystack rock, because the beach was unbearably foggy as well. I collected an uncomfortable amount of sand in my shoes on the walk to the rock. After returning to the main street, we stopped by at a nice bagel and coffee shop for some bagels and to hit the road again.
On the drive down to see Cape Meares Lighthouse, we made dozens of stops along view points and the coast in general to take pictures and see the Oregon Coast. It was quite beautiful, but I thought it was most so around Central Oregon.
After what seemed like at least a few hours, we finally made it to our first lighthouse- Cape Meares. It was a nice lighthouse and I loved the surroundings, which included some monoliths and rugged rocks to the north and south. About 1/4 mile up the hill from the lighthouse is the Octopus Tree- a weird looking, multi-branched tree that is unlike any I’ve ever seen. We took some pictures, hung around and ultimately hit the road for Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
View of the cliffs around Cape Meares Lighthouse
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Rock formations at Cape Meares Lighthouse
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Giant rock near Cape Meares Lighthouse
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Octopus Tree
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Some 2.5 hours later, we reached Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Again, in the process, we stopped repeatedly to look at the coast at just about every possible stop. The lighthouse is located in a National Park, and at the end of the large Yaquina Head rock. The lighthouse itself was very well preserved, tall, and quite nice. Its surroundings were also nice, less attractive than Cape Meares’ though.
Cape Foulweather with Yaquina Lighthouse in the distance
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Yaquina Lighthouse in the distance
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Yaquina Lighthouse
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On our final long drive of the day, we headed to Heceta Head Lighthouse. That drive seemed to take forever, because I believe the most beautiful part of the Oregon coast (at least to this point) is between these two lighthouses. I think Cape Perpetua is magnificent. In particular Cooks Chasm was one of the nicest coastal destinations I’ve ever seen!
Shortly after Cape Perpetua, we reached Heceta Head Lighthouse. I was so excited, I climbed some dangerous rocks to get unique views of the lighthouse. Heceta Head Lighthouse is truly unbelievably beautiful. The only other lighthouse in its league is Point Conception, I believe. It is perched on an awesome, rugged rock, with some monoliths in the area and at the north end of a tiny cove. I couldn’t get enough of it.
Scaling the rocks around Heceta Head Lighthouse
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Heceta Head Lighthouse
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Heceta Head Lighthouse
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Heceta Head Lighthouse
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Heceta Head Lighthouse in the distance
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When we finally got our fill of the lighthouse, we went to check into our (nasty) motel, went to have buffet dinner at a casino, fueled and headed back to the motel to crash after a tremendously fulfilling, exciting, but exhausting day.
Silver Falls and Portland — Day 3
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
I woke up naturally at 6am this morning. Before 6:45am we were already on the road, having decided to skip formal breakfast and just eat granola bars and bananas in the car. We started out on Hwy 97N, followed by 58W. From there, it was back up to 5N, and finally to 214E to get to the Silver Falls.
Along the drive up to Silver Falls State Park, we came across a very nice lake called Odell Lake. The interesting part about this lake is that there used to be a computer game when I was in elementary school, used for educational purposes, called Odell Lake. I used to enjoy playing it in class a good deal- controlling a fish in the lake, trying to determine when to eat other fish, when to run away, or when to ignore other underwater life. I found a link for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odell_Lake_(computer_game).
About 30 minutes north of this lake, on the right side of Hwy 58, we saw a vulture eating a dead carcass, no more than 6 feet away from our car. It was really raw and somewhat horrific. Still, the image stuck with me enough to remember writing about it.
At 11am we pulled into Silver Falls State Park. It was amazing! There were many waterfalls, ranging from roughly 30 foot drops to close to 200. What was further amazing was that one could walk behind and around a couple of these waterfalls. We probably hiked a total of 6-7 miles, climbing and descending to and from waterfalls. Around 2pm we stopped by the lodge at the park and voraciously ate lunch… we were starving!
North Falls
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Winter Falls
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Middle North Falls
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Drake’s Falls
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Lower North Falls
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Double Falls
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Twin Falls
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South Falls
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South Falls
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Following the park, we headed to Portland along Hwy 214. From there, it was on to Hwy 213E and ultimately 205N. We pulled into our hotel, figured out some places to visit, and headed out. Our first stop was Powell’s Book Store- the largest independent bookstore in the world. It had everything I could think of; an enormous 3 story bookstore with a diverse collection of books. Following the bookstore we went to get some dinner at a place called Wild Wood, a really excellent restaurant a couple miles away from the bookstore. I had researched for good places to eat prior to coming to Portland and I’m glad we found that place.
Pretty exhausted after dinner, we walked one of the bridges that separate Portland into two sides, and had a chance to see the Rose Garden, where the now defunct Portland Lumberjax (NLL lacrosse team) and the Portland TrailBlazers call home court. From there we turned into the hotel to crash really hard following another long, tiring, but exciting day.
Crater Lake — Day 2
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
We woke up at 6:45 in the morning in Willows. As it was uncomfortably hot all night, we ran the A/C the entire night. There was a Denny’s right across the street and we decided to have breakfast there.
By 8am we were well on our way to Crater Lake National Park. It was supposed to take just over 6 hours to get there. Due to kind road conditions on Hwy 5, and a generous speed limit, we made it there in 5 hours, finishing out the final leg on Hwy 97.
Along the way we hit the unremarkable Oregon-California state borderline. I expected more than just a worn out sign that was partially faded welcoming us to Oregon. We did, however, get some very nice glimpses of Mt. Shasta, which had quite a bit of snow. The view of Mt. Shasta from the town of Weed was really great. I also thought the Sacramento River was beautiful.
We had lunch at a restaurant right at the south entrance to the park around 1pm and then made our way up to Crater Lake. Crater Lake was amazing! The color of the water is a deep, dark blue, unlike any other blue I’ve ever seen.
There was a large island inside the big lake, called Wizard Island. There is also a rugged rock structure called Phantom Ship Rock. I loved the latter rock.
Initially the plan was to walk a long trail. But ultimately the walking trails didn’t enable us to see enough of the lake. Eventually we decided to drive around the entire lake and walk the short paths at each of the roughly two dozen stops. Each stop gave us a different angle of the lake, and something new to see.
Close to the end of the two dozen stops, we pulled off to a place called The Pinnacles. There we saw amazing rock formations made of lava ash that looked like smoke stacks. This reminded me of Cappadoccia, Turkey and the landscape we saw there last May. Right at the tail end of the loop we saw a few small water falls.
Unfortunately along with amazing scenery all throughout the park, there were also tons of bugs that bit us and left us scratching ourselves at many of the stops. Hopefully this will be gone by tomorrow.
We left the park in the evening and headed back south on Hwy 97 to Klamath Falls, where we had dinner and slept the night.
One final observation for the day. Breakfast at Willows, lunch at Crater Lake and dinner in Klamath Falls all reminded me that the Bay Area is so much more tolerant and diverse. At each of our three meals today, folks looked at us like we were out of place and didn’t belong. It certainly didn’t make for a very comfortable set of meals today and it’s unfortunate. I don’t know what the whole country is like in terms of diversity and acceptance, but I expect Portland (being a big city) to make us feel more welcome tomorrow.