Friendly Tillamook!

A view looking back at the Bridge that brings you into Waldport

On our first full day on the Orgeon Coast we rolled out of bed a little after 9 had our showers and put our selves together for a full day of exploring the coast south of us down into Florence. We stopped whenever we would see something that looked interesting to us. We were really struck by two things that first morning. The absolute beauty of the, most of the time, rugged meandering coast line and secondly all of the Tsunami Warning Signs. Now there is something we had never really thought of before visiting here. As you read the signs for what to do if you are in one of these areas, which is basically, the entire coasts of Northern California, Oregon and Washington you realize that you had better be ready to hightail it, if you have the presence to realize as a visitor that you just experienced an earthquake. I am not certain that I would know what it felt like but I was sure that I was paying attention while I (we) were out there walking on the very extended beaches during low tide. We stopped and had the rare lunch in a restaurant in the village of Yachats. This is pronounced YA- HOTS. At a little family restaurant called the Drift In. It was busy and not with just tourists but locals as well. Even with knowing as little as I frequent restaurants Iyou cna trust that if the locals are eating there it is a good bet that the food is good and the prices reasonable.

This is Little Miss Sunshine Smiles

After lunch our first site see stop was the Devils Churn. One of the places where the relentless pounding of the ocean has worn into the terrain of the coast and has created an active chasm that illustrates the power of the water and waves up close and personal. See if you can watch the video. Sorry it is side ways but this was my first go at the video and I do not know how to turn it 90 degrees. Here are a few pictures of the experience as well.

We left Waldport Monday at 11 and headed in a basically northern direction weaving along the coast of Oregon looking to land in the Camp Lookout State Park on the Three Capes Loop. We drove the summer congested 101 back through the active villages of Newport, Otter Rock, Depoe Bay and Lincoln City that we had passed thru just a couple of days before, in the evening, heading south. They are much busier during the morning hours as the thousands of us tiurist are doing what we do when we visit little sea villages. Then we passed the junction of Rt 18 that we had come in on from the east and as we continued passed on up 101 we were now moving further north than any of us had ever been in the pacific norhtwest before. On this leg it got less populated, more beautiful and a little more challenging or fun, depending on how you view it, to drive with a motor home. It almost felt as though we were in a rain forest. It was foggy when we got here to the coast, it has been foggy to some extend everyday and it rains mist from the fog a lot of the time but changes almost instantly evry 5 to 10 minutes or so.

After Devils Churn viewing we hiked the other side of this National Recreation area and ended up atthe rocky shores and beach area to the south. The kids played in the tidal pools left in the rocks for 40 mins and then down on to the beach and into a driftwood makeshift shelter someone had obviuosly taken quite a bit of time to create. They were pirates for a day that evening and the scene was gorgeous. After a considerable hike and playing in the greenery on the hillside that made natural forts, on the way back to the car, we loaded up and continued south towards Florence. We stopped every so often for more pictures and also momentarily at the "Sea Lions Caves". This is a place discoverd many years ago where the sea lions come naturally in abundance (during certain times of the year) and not at this time of the year. It has been made into a tourisat attration that charges 9 dollars for each person to get down 125 feet to the level of a naturally created cave where they lie enmass to rest from the ocean. They were closed when we got there so we talked to a guy outside who told us there were only a couple in the cave and not worth going anyway from his perspective. So we were glad they were closed. We continued our drive to Florence and the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. This is not only a huge stretch of beach but also the place to go to do Dune Buggy and Quad rentals to ride all over the sand back off the beach. We never found any place to rent from at the hour we were there so we went and played on the beach for a hour or so before it began to rain lightly. At that point it was getting late in the evening and we began the trek backto Waldport for supper and Olympic TV. It had been a good full day and it once again confirmed that we don't have to do all the fancy tourist gigs to provide solid entertainment value for the kids.