Oregon Coast Trip

     Well we finally made our trip to the Oregon coast. Last year I posted about our mishap that ended the original planned trip. You can read about that at:The Road Trip that Wasn't. So with all plans made and reservations secured we set off on our adventure. And it turned into that right off the bat, as we headed over our Big Horn mountains this is what we ran into.

     Once we got over the mountains things started to ease off. We were planning on going through Yellowstone to get to Idaho as this is the shortest and fastest route. But when we got to Cody we found that Yellowstone was closed due to weather and no idea when it might open. So we opted to go around, which of course made it impossible to make it to our first stop at Pocatella, Idaho (cancel reservation). We did get some nice views of the Grand Tetons on our detour.

The next day we drove as far as we could but couldn't make it to our next stop (cancel reservation). The third day we were able to make our planned stop in Fort Klamath, Oregon. We arrived and got set up and settled in. The next day we planned on visiting Crater Lake. But again the weather was against us. When we got to the lake the ranger told us the lake wasn't visible because of low hanging clouds and it was supposed to start snowing. So we went on to our next stop, the Rogue river. It wasn't snowing there but was raining, although off and on. I did manage to get some nice pictures of the area.

  

     We had a nice lunch at Beckie's Cafe in Union Center, they have the best homemade pies. Then headed back to our camp. We saw snow along the highway as we went past the Crater Lake area. The next day we headed on to the coast with rain off and on along the way. We stayed at Bullard's Beach State park in Bandon.  

     It was a nice campground, only about a 3/4 mile walk from the beach.

    

 The next day we took off to explore the area south of Bandon. We made numerous stops along the way. Of course you have to visit a lighthouse when you're on the coast. This was the Port Orford lighthouse.

     We had an interesting and informative tour of the lighthouse. The following photos show the view from the top, the light itself and the stairs looking down.

     Oregon has a rugged and beautiful coast.

One nice thing about Oregon beaches, they are open to everyone including doggies. 

     The following day we headed a little ways north to Shore Acres State Park. At one time it was a private residence. The original house is no longer there but they have an informative visitors center and you can admire the beautiful views.

     But what Shore Acres is best known for is it's botanical gardens. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed wandering around the grounds.

      After this we headed back to the town of Bandon and enjoyed a late lunch and a stroll around Old Town. This fish is made out of trash washed up on shore, mostly plastics.

     Something I didn't know was that cranberries are grown on the Oregon coast. We visited a shop that had cranberry everything, candy, jam, syrup etc. They had lots of samples to try and of course we bought some of the things we sampled. Another shop we visited was Coastal Mist Chocolate, they are known for their chocolate desserts. As the photo below shows we enjoyed ours.

     The next day we moved camp north to Seal Rock. We had a nice spot in our campground with a view of the ocean. 

     Our first day exploring this area we visited Cape Foulweather and the Devils punch bowl. 

     We then visited another lighthouse at Yaquina Head. 

     While here a whale was spotted close to shore. It was hard to catch him with my camera when he surfaced but you can see him a little bit.

     We returned to camp and decided to explore the beach which was only a short two minute walk from our campground. 

After dinner we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

     The next day started out foggy and drizzly. We headed out with our first stop at the Devils Churn turn off. There is a narrow inlet that the ocean comes into making the water churn. I'm not sure why so many things here start with devil. 

Then we moved on to another lighthouse at Heceta Head. It was a 1/2 mile hike up to see it and the views it allowed.

We stopped in the town of Florence to check out their 'Old Town'

And had lunch at a popular seafood restaurant.

       The next day we moved on to the town of Seaside. It rained off and on the whole day. We got a little break in the rain when we got to our campground. We set up as quickly as we could and didn't get too wet. The wind came up and got worse in the evening with gusts up to 40-50 mph. In bed that night we felt like we were on a carnival ride. The wind finally died down around midnight. The next day we woke to rain, we did come prepared with rain ponchos and umbrellas. Even Wally was ready for the weather.

     So we set off for more exploring. We stopped at Cape Meares which has the shortest lighthouse. 

Even with fog and rain there is beauty.

     Also in this area was the Octopus tree. I think you can tell by looking at it how it got it's name. The tree is thought to be 250-300 years old and has no central trunk. They don't really know how it came to grow this way.

     We then decided to try something drier, so we paid a visit to the Tillamook cheese factory. 

They had samples!

     We also had some of their ice cream. They are in the process of building a bigger and better information center which will open next year.  The rain continued for the rest of the day. We checked the forecast and more of the same was expected for the next several days. So we decided to end our trip one day early and headed home. 

     Our trip had a few snags along the way but over all we had a very enjoyable trip. It was great to finally be able to see and explore the Oregon coast. It was definitely worth the trip. 

A thought to ponder: "One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."                                                                William Feathr

Participating in: Grand Social, Nature Notes, Through My Lens, Seasons

The Road Trip that Wasn't

      We bought a used popup camper and fixed it up (the make over will be my next post). I spent at least a month planning our itinerary and making reservations. On October 13th we took off on a road trip to the Oregon coast. It didn't quite turn out as planned.

     The first night of our trip we stayed at a motel. Mainly because it was a long driving day and we were just trying to get there.  The second night was to be our first camping night. We would be staying at a hot springs in Oregon.  We got there, found our spot and got everything ready to raise the camper. There was a pop and nothing happened, the camper wouldn't go up. We found the cable had busted. The people at the campground were helpful in trying to find someone who might be able to fix it. To make a long story short, after talking to several people, we were unable to get the camper fixed in a reasonable amount of time. So I had to call and cancel all our reservations and then figure out our best route home. We thought we should try and salvage a little of our trip.

     So we headed back on highway 26, with a short side trip to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center.

     From there we went on to spend the night in Baker City, Oregon at the Geiser Grand Hotel. We had stayed here once before and loved it. This time we stayed in the Cupola room on the third floor. To read more about the hotel see my post:A Bed Time Story. 

   

     The next day we continued on through Oregon and into Idaho, enjoying the fall colors along the way.

We made a stop at the Chief Joseph Memorial

      We continued on a two lane highway, sometimes steep and curvy.

We spent the night in a small town in Idaho. The next day we woke up to fog but  continued on, following the Lewis and Clark trail.

     There was plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy even if the day was wet and overcast.

     My husband was sure I found every two lane highway between Oregon and our home in Wyoming. But we did finally reach an interstate in the big sky country of Montana.

     We stopped for the night at one of our favorite places, Chico Hot Springs. The hotel has been there since the early 1900's. It's a rustic and relaxing place to stay and they have a four star restaurant. You can find out more about this great place here: Chico Hot Springs.

     After a nice dinner and a relaxing soak in the hot springs pool, the next day we headed home.   I kept checking the weather on the Oregon coast and found that it rained pretty much the whole time we would have been there. So I do have that to console me. So our 16 day trip turned out to be 7. It wasn't the trip we planned but we tried to make a little bit of lemonade from our lemons.

P.S. Our camper is now fixed. We'll try again next year.

A thought to ponder: "One of the greatest blessings in the world is to be able                                   to be happy even when things in life are not going as                                       planned."

Participating in:Grand Social, Seasons, Share Your cup, Share the Joy