1982 Oregon (8/6/1982)

Friday, August 6, 1982

We began to smell fish and salt sea air. It seemed we were surrounded by water. After passing Seattle, I stopped for gas. Kathy was stretched out on the back seat. I finally gave up driving about 4:00 and pulled into a rest stop to stretch out on the front seat to sleep for a couple hours.

After using restrooms at 6:00, Kathy took over driving down I-5, where it was really misty as we passed through forested hills. We didn’t get to see either Mount Ranier or Mount St Helens to our left. At Kelso, we turned west on Washington State Route 4, following the Columbia River. I was dozing off when Kathy noticed the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge For the Columbian White-Tailed Deer. We made a short detour to see a few of the Odocoileus virginianus leucurus.

Farther along we reached a logging area with a lot of bare hills with bleached stumps on them. Another deer trotted across the road ahead of us, but we couldn’t stop because of a logging truck on our tail.

We continued until we met U.S. Route 101, taking that south to cross the mouth of the Columbia River on a 4-mile Astoria-Megler Bridge (1966). We spiraled down into Oregon and paid the $1.50 toll. We continued south on US 101, almost getting shunted off onto Business Route 101, but quickly righting ourselves. We passed a mudflat bay (with herons) and entered wooded hills. We saw some mountains ahead. We had actually been along the coast for a while but didn’t realize it since we didn’t see water. When we did, we stopped to photograph our first view of the Pacific Ocean.

First view of the Pacific Ocean

We drove along the rocky coast with occasional huge sand beaches. We stopped at Hug Point State Park to walk down to the beach and dip our toes into the surf. Saw wide beaches and grottoes.

Hug Point State Park

Hug Point State Park

Hug Point State Park grotto

Hug Point State Park

We examined the tidal pools and all the stuff left on the beach by the waves; shells, parts of crabs, seaweed, jellyfish, whole sand dollars, and dead starfish. The lower part of a huge rock out in the water was exposed from the tide, and we could see starfish, barnacles, sea urchins, and maybe sea anemones.

Tidal pool with starfish and sea urchins

Sea anemone

Starfish and sea anemones

In the state of Washington and in Oregon we have seen joggers, and there were joggers on the beach.

We continued down US 101 to see the Salishan Lodge, a supposed seat of luxury. It was a modern wood beam set of structures set in evergreen woods, but did not seem like anything special.

We stopped at Fogarty Creek State Park, where the creek meets the beach.

Fogarty Creek State Park

Next stop was Boiler Bay which was very rocky.

Boiler Bay view

Oregon coast

Oregon coast

Next was Depoe Bay, which is billed as the smallest navigable harbor in the world. Here we walked along the rocky coast while the surf broke below us and hundreds of seagulls screamed. It was noisy! We spotted a couple seals playing in the waves.

Phoca vitulina/Harbor Seal

Crashing surf

Also some birds we believe are Cepphus columba/Pigeon Guillemots. Saw the rockbound harbor of Depoe Bay and the small channel under the bridge to the ocean. There were a few sailboats, but not many fishing boats at this time.

We continued driving to the Otter Crest Scenic Loop, stopping at the Cape Foulweather Lookout where we had a slightly hazy view of the “scalloped, battered, gossamer coastline,” which was supposed to be a “heady draught of beauty.”

Otter Crest

View of Otter Rock from Cape Foulweather Lookout

Well, the condominiums spoiled the view. We went to the telescopes to view the rocks where Zalophus californianus/California Sea Lions, Alcid sp/”Oregon penguins,” and “sea turkeys” (is that a joke?) roost. We only saw Larus occidentalis/Western Gulls.

Made another tidal pool stop and used sticks to gently poke the sea urchins to make them close up. A couple crabs scurried off sideways. There was lots of crushed shells and driftwood.

We continued to Florence, passing through when we blinked. We went on to Reedsport where I called my Great-Aunt Bryn who gave me directions to the house where she was staying, for later that day. We had lunch at a Dairy Queen. I had clam strips with potato salad and a piece of garlic toast, and Kathy had a barbecue sandwich with fries.

We backtracked to Dunes National Recreation Area to the Siltcoos Beach area, and were disappointed with the small grass-covered dunes.

Dunes National Recreation Area

Dunes National Recreation Area

We later passed the Jessie M Honeyman State Park that we thought was just a camping area, but we later learned that’s where all the huge endless dunes are! Oh, well.
Back in Florence, we took Oregon State Route 126 towards Eugene. SR 126 was a winding narrow road through the coastal mountains. In Eugene we took I-5 about 10 miles south to exit at Cresswell and took a right turn. After crossing the railroad tracks, I had no choice but to turn right, but took the next left per directions. But we were on A Street and not Meadow Lane. We checked out a few parallel streets, but they were alphabetized! We were in an area of small houses with pick-up trucks. Kathy hopped out to ask directions, and we were sent back to A Street which if we had stayed on it, we would have found it becomes Meadow Lane when it enters a newer development of wood houses with wooden street numbers. We found number 520 and went to meet Aunt Bryn S, her daughters Doreen and Midge, and Doreen’s husband David. We learned the S family had unexpectedly sold their house and had to move in with Doreen. We had arrived at about 23:30 and there was a lot of talk.

Next: California Redwoods.