Traveling the Oregon Coast: Great Fun on Highway 101

"A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea." - Dutch proverb

After leaving the fry bread behind at the Nesika Illahee Pow-Wow in Siletz late Saturday afternoon, we raced the sunset as we headed south on Highway 101 from Newport. Golden hour beat us to the Heceta Head Lighthouse viewpoint (which is now unfortunately closed due to construction), but we were able to capture a few images of the lighthouse from a distance, even if the conditions were not ideal.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

There was, however, one photogenic seagull that seemed to be more than happy to have his picture taken, repeatedly, with the quickly fading sunset in the background.

We drove in the dark south past Coos Bay and parked the RV for the night. In the morning we headed for the nearest beach, Seven Devils State Park, a day use area, for a front row view of the ocean to accompany our breakfast. We arrived to find the place our own private playground, with not another soul in sight.

Merchant Beach

After what some might consider “begging” by the girls (okay, honestly, it didn’t take much on their part) we headed down to the sand to play. There are actually three beaches here: Agate (Yes, there is more than one along the Oregon Coast), Merchant, and Whisky. While the girls enjoyed themselves thoroughly, I think the look on my miniature pincher’s face says it all…

My dog Sarah

There is nothing better than a morning spent running and playing on the Oregon Coast!!

Alas, all good things must come to an end eventually, and there was still much to see between our current position and our scheduled destination for the night, my uncle’s house just outside Gold Beach. Once again we headed south on Highway 101.

A camping combination you don't see every day!

Coquille River Lighthouse sits within Bullards Beach State Park, just outside of Bandon, Oregon. Decommissioned in 1939 when a wildfire swept through the area. The first major restoration began in 1976 but the Fresnel lens is no longer in place and has since been replaced with a solar light.

The lighthouse missing the lens.

One could not have asked for Mother Nature to give a better backdrop for photographing the lighthouse that day. Bright blue sky and whispy blue clouds were like a dream come true. I took countless pictures from every angle. Below are a couple of my favorites.

From there, we headed back onto the highway to quite literally have a wild time! Stay tuned!!

Plan your own visit:

Heceta Head Lighthouse 

Bullards Beach State Park

Travel Oregon: Coquille River Lighthouse

The Columbia River Gorge Through New Eyes

Whenever someone from out of town comes to visit, there is an unwritten list of places that you must take them. The Oregon Coast, Columbia River Gorge, Powell's City of Books, Voodoo Doughnuts and it goes on and on. As many of you know, my friend (and many of yours as well) Sarah was out visiting the great Pacific Northwest from North Carolina, and I took it upon myself to kidnap her for the day and show her one of my favorite places on earth, the western Columbia River Gorge.

I spend a lot of time in "The Gorge". If I am not out there at least once a month it is probably because I have been suffering from some horrible illness. Or have been extremely busy. Either way, it's not good. So, a trip out the old highway may be considered somewhat "routine" around my house, even though every trip it can be very different, depending on the season and what the weather has done recently. However, I can't recall a time I have ever had the rare opportunity to show the area to someone who has never seen it before, except through my pictures. To say this was a treat would be a great understatement.

There is a normal path people follow when visiting The Gorge. From my experience, the majority of the people that I have witnessed visiting usually stop at Vista House, and then high tail it for Multnomah Falls, passing many other beautiful sights along the way. I assure you, Sarah did not get this type of tour, and I don't think anyone would expect any less than the Blue Ribbon Tour from me.


Of course our first stop was Vista House. Sarah must have thought me a bit crazy when I told her we were going to stop at one of the most beautiful, and expensive when it was built, rest areas in the world. (For those of you don't know, that was the "original" purpose of the building when originally constructed.) The weather was not exactly cooperating. Okay, really, it wasn't at all. It was gray and drizzly, but, if you think about it, the perfect representation of a February day in Oregon.

Sarah enjoying the view at Vista House/Crown Point

Our next stop was Latourell Falls. Now, don't go telling Wahkeena Falls, cause we all know how jealous she can get, but, this is probably my favorite waterfall to photograph in The Gorge. Shhh...remember, it's our secret. The best part, I was starting to see the first sparkles of awe and wonder in Sarah's eyes.

Latourell Falls

Next stop was Bridal Veil Falls. I warned Sarah I was going to take her on a hike this trip, but would go easy on her, and I think I kept my word. There was a wonderful amazement in Sarah's eyes as we hiked down the trail, that just continued to grow the closer to the falls that we got. I heard things like "Have you seen the Narnia movies? I feel like I am one in them right now." "This looks like Lord of the Rings!" Okay, I may be paraphrasing a bit. Sarah can correct me later. I was too thrilled with her reaction to remember her exact words, but I think you get the idea.

Bridal Veil Creek

Sarah and Sage at Bridal Veil Falls

 From there we made the rest of the "highlight" stops along the Historic Highway. Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, Oneonta Gorge and Tunnel, and Horsetail Falls. At this point I kind of expected Sarah to be saying "Oh yay another waterfall. *YAWN*" but she seemed absolutely thrilled with every stop we made, even if we just jumped out of the car for a few pictures and moved on at a couple of spots.

Making a quick stop at Wahkeena Falls

One of the perils of taking any kind of day trip with my family is we all have cameras. We have been known to stop and take a picture of almost anything that catches our eye. Leave, flowers, an interesting rain drop. Yeah, pretty much anything. Anyone who does not have the photography habit and accompanies us usually spends a fair amount of time standing around waiting for us to finish taking pictures. I guess you can call it a "recreational hazard". However, on this trip, I think I spent more time standing around waiting for Sarah to finish taking pictures, and completely enjoying her reaction to everything she saw. I didn't even notice that I was barely taking any pictures.

We all found  something interesting to take a picture of.

We stopped for lunch at Charburger in Cascade Locks. Food is nothing fancy, but you won't get a better view while you eat. This is probably my favorite lunch stop for that reason alone, but the marionberry pie isn't half bad either.

From there we took Sarah on the Dam tour. Bonneville Dam that is. I had hoped the sea lions would be making a repeat appearance, and they did not disappoint. As an added bonus, we spotted two bald eagles and two golden eagles perched in a tree. I assume they were fishing just like the sea lion. We sat in the car and watched them for a long time, and even remarked that while w were watching the wildlife, most of our friend were sitting around somewhere watching the Super Bowl. Can't say as I am sorry we missed the half time show, and from what I heard when we got back home, it certainly sounds like we got the better end of the deal.

Bald Eagles at Bonneville Dam

Our final stop was the Bonneville Fish Hatchery to visit Herman the Sturgeon and his rainbow trout friends. A perfect way to end a tour of the Columbia River Gorge.

Rainbow Trout at Bonneville Dam

Final photo count:

Sarah: 250 Wahkeena Photos: 76

Note: Sarah has been one of my great friends that has encouraged me to start blogging, and I usually count on her to proofread my posts. I wanted to surprise her with this one, so please excuse any typos, grammatical errors, etc. I hope you enjoyed it Sarah, and thanks for giving me the chance to see The Gorge through your eyes!!

Stranded Beaver on the Beach

This past Saturday, we decided to head west towards the northern portion of the Oregon Coast, stopping to view Elk at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary and a quick hike at Fishhawk Falls along the way, the details of which will be coming to you in a not so distant future blog post. Viewing the elk so close was definitely a highlight of the day, until I had a rare encounter with a beached beaver.

We decided to use the vehicle access point near Gearhart and drive up the beach to see what we could see, expecting nothing more than some shorebirds, a few gulls, and maybe some interesting driftwood. For those of you outside the Pacific Northwest, the past few weeks have seen some unusually heavy rans, along with the associated flooding, so just being at the ocean with the sun shining was a welcome treat, plus you never know what is going to wash ashore after a storm. We happily drove along snapping pictures of the sandpipers and just enjoying the beauty of the day.

Somewhere near Sunset Bay State Park, a gentleman in a white truck flagged us down to stop. We obliged, figuring he had a warning about some sort of danger that may lie further up the coastline.

"Look out. Right up there *pointing to a brown blob in the surf* is a beaver. He's a young guy and pretty tired. He's been there all day being battered by the waves. Wildlife rescue is on the way. Just give him some space, he's having a pretty bad day."

Brown Blob in the Surf

My husband and I both looked at each other and exclaimed "A beaver? What?" This we had to see.
 
Now, I am not a beaver, but I have to imagine that while I rather enjoy a day on the coast, for him, being stuck there was no day at the beach. Now, being as I have never seen a beach beaver, and I am not sure whoever wrote the Marine Mammal protection act meant it to apply to stranded beavers, we were not sure how to handle the situation. However, we respected the beaver's space, kept the same distance we would for a beached seal, and were thankful for the powerful zoom of our camera lens.

The poor little guy was just miserable. He kept trying to swim back out to sea, and back to whatever river or creek he came from, but it looked more like he was making a really bad attempt at body surfing. Then when he would take a moment to rest, a huge glob of sea foam would cover him completely, and he looked like someone took him out of the bathtub and forgot to rinse the shampoo off. We sat and watched over him for quite a while. Lots of other people stopped intermittently to gawk, and we all remarked that we had never heard of, let alone seen a beaver on the beach before.

Finally, the cavalry (Wildlife Center of the North Coast) came to the rescue!! At this point my husband jumped out of the car with the camera to get pictures of the rescue. My youngest child and I waited safely in the car. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be anywhere near an angry beaver should it decide to attack.

Luckily, the whole rescue happened without incident. They corralled him into a huge fishing type net, put him in a crate and were gone in less than 10 minutes. Really, the whole thing was pretty anitclimatic. I was expecting the beaver to put up at least a little bit of a fight, but, in all honesty, I think he was just ready for his day on the beach to come to an end and was happy to comply with anyone that offered him an escape route.

We did talk to the rescuers, and they pretty much confirmed the theory we had been bouncing around since we happened upon him. all the recent flooding had washing him out of whatever stream he had been living in, and right out to see. That must have been on hell of a ride!!

Now, to me, this is a once in a lifetime occurrence. I never expect to go to the beach and see a beaver surfing. Other than the normal sandpipers, seagulls  and starfish, maybe I might see a few other interesting birds such as terns or pelicans. If I am really fortunate, maybe a seal that has come ashore and is also in need of rescue, but never an unlucky beaver. Much to my surprise, the wildlife rescue volunteers said that this actually happens five or six times a year, especially after the rivers and creeks have been flooding.

I guess it just goes to show, you never know what you will find when you go exploring the Oregon Coast.