A cool and drizzly morning made for a lazy day. We were planning a bit of a rest for a day or two, but I was thinking laying around on the beach, watching the Pacific Ocean - the weather was not so conducive for that! A little more checking out of the property and picking of its abundant berries. At only ~1/4 mile from the ocean, I think this place is pretty sweet! After preparing some hot beverages, we set out to sight-see the blustery coast down Highway 101. Everywhere we went the basalt was pretty grippy, and we were able to keep moving and stay warm. I think the weather kept the Saturday crowds down, which I appreciated. I took an excessive amount of pictures, but they're never as good as real life, so quite a bit of winnowing down to get some fun ones included here. First stop was Driftwood Beach - right across Highway 101 from Larry's place! There is definitely a bit of ocean smell and feel and sounds - but none if it as strong as I expected. The highlight here was finding bullwhip kelp, and a seal carcass.
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| Cool little dunes! |
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| I was impressed by the people fishing out there |
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| Rudy practicing with the whip |
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| One nice thing about the cool day... |
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| Alsea Bridge, looking north |
Next was Yachats State Park where we saw some bigger waves and lots of tidal pools full of green anemone and crabs, and cool shellfish and barnacles getting beat up by the waves crashing on their rocky homes.
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| anemones! |
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| For some reason, these little pictographs amuse me |
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| cool plants too! |
Moving further south, we entered Cape Perpetua, and there were a lot more people, but also more of the classic big ocean waves beating into rocks and spraying all over. Cook's Chasm and Sprouting Horn are supposed to be better with a higher tide then we had, but still pretty awesome, loud waves!
Thor's Well was pretty fun to watch too.
More rockiness and tidal pools here too.
When it was time to find a site for the night, we headed up a forest road and were surprised the first flat, open area unoccupied on a Saturday! The rest of the evening consisted of making some simple stirfry to eat and finishing the second season of Game of Thrones, which we are growing more attached to (obviously, since we keep watching it!), but I'm still having a hard time biting my tongue about how some parts and characters were different, or non-existent, in the book.
August 28
Still cool, but it didn't get much colder overnight - 50s, there was some mistiness though, and the grassy, brushy site didn't make strolling around too inviting. We headed to the Cummings Creek Trailhead for a relatively short run for me and ride for Rudy. Another nice, cushy trail in dense green woods for a few miles, then a mile of steeper, looser rock, and roots, and a little side loop to take on the way back for variety. Rudy was awesome and cleared some trees off the trail.After some lunch we stopped by Neptune Scenic Area - more rocks, waves, tidal pools, etc. - still fascinating on day 2! We hit low tide again and had some different perspectives of the marine life that we saw underwater yesterday.
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| Neptune Beach |
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| Palm kelp |
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| More anemones? |
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| A wide variety of kelp |
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| Lots of large driftwood! |
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| brown pool, green pool? |
Next was Cummings Ridge Trailhead - Rudy managed to get a little run in while I napped. Seemed like a decent place to call it a night, so we had plenty of time to relax, heat up water to clean up, make some remaining pasta ingredients into dinner, and get in another game of Trivial Pursuit.
August 29
I got in my little run on the Cummings Ridge Trail, then we indulged in hot breakfast and tea once again. A slightly clearer day, still chilly though. We continued heading south, making a stop at the Oregon Dunes Siltcoos Beach. This was (obviously) more sandy and less rocky, good for wading in the the ocean, seeing lots of cool shells and rocks, and finally getting some sunshine and 60F temps!
We just happened to make a stop at Darlingtonia Wayside, which is dedicated to Darlingtonia Californica (pitcher plants), which happened to be huge and extremely abundant! A good random find in my opinion.
Eventually it was time to find another forest road spot to spend the night - we ended up apparently on China Mountain and saw more madrone trees and berries and more fogginess. We did an easy heat up of black bean soup, rice and spinach for dinner and got a start on Season 3 of Game of Thrones.
August 30
Another late morning - I'm not sure if I like the 10 hours of sleeping or not - seems like a waste of time, but rest is good, right? Luckily we didn't encounter any vehicles on the narrow road with minimal shoulder and steep slopes coming down the mountain. Back to continuing south, and the sun was out as we hit Gold Coast, then California!
We stopped for some biking at Little Bald Hills Trail in the redwoods - not the giant redwoods, but still pretty cool. The trail started in denser forest, then opened up to more grassy, open forest at the top, with serpentine rock too - nifty.
The trail started with a lot of climbing the first few miles, but nothing too technical, then fairly flat a couple miles at the top - it was a good one for me to bike most of and not constantly be on the brakes for the descent. Just a short walk from the trailhead was Smith River for a little wading and refreshing.
We continued south on Howland Hill Road - pretty narrow and windy through the redwood forest, then made a short stop at Crescent Beach Overlook, with the trailhead for the next days' activity.
I was surprised how prevalent elk are around here, we passed by an especially tame bunch on the way out. We struggled to find any free places to camp for the night, the area is either private land, or state/national park, so actually went to a campground - a little spendier than I would like for essentially a place to park and running water, and you still had to pay more for a shower! But at least it was hot and had good pressure! We fried some potatoes with lots of veggies for dinner and just the usual evening of GOT and reading.August 31
Another cool morning, that started clear, but clouded up quickly. Went back to Crescent Beach Overlook to run the 'Last Chance' section of the Pacific Coast Trail through more redwood forest, doesn't look like much in pictures though.
Increasing damp and drizzly as we continued down Highway 101, seeing lots of bikers - this is a popular bike touring route, with plenty of signs communicating that to motorized vehicles - good! We headed east on Highway 299 and finally into the 70s with some sunshine! We stopped for a dip in the Trinity River.
We settled for another campground, since it was dinner time and we weren't motivated for exploring. This one was less developed, but totally worth $3! Starting to see some different flora and fauna too, including some California Quail I didn't get a picture of!
We made red beans and black rice for dinner - the first time on the trip for soaking dried beans, I started them the prior night, then added the rice early afternoon, and it all cooked up fine in less than half an hour - will repeat in the future! The evenings usual activities once again.
That Oregon bridge information center looked really cool. The bridges in Oregon were really impressive so I am sure that was interesting! Very cool photos, I am enjoying the posts. Keep them coming! - Jake P.
ReplyDeleteOne of these summers we're going to do something like this although we want to head north and back through Canada. How has it been to find places to spend the night off the beaten path? We're always afraid to do that but sometimes it's hard to find a campground and one with a site available. The year we headed to Arizona and back through the Rockies we did a combo of truck stops, pull offs, Walmarts and designated campgrounds. It's easier I think with your set up. When you're pulling a trailer it's harder to just pull into a residential area and pretend you're not camping. Last week we laughed when we saw someone all set up in a Walmart parking lot. They had the lawn chairs and the dog pen etc. No campfire though but it wouldn't have surprised me.
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