Booking a trip to the Oregon coast is a bit
of a trick - you want to see things, but you don't want to drive
the same part of the highway 4 times and you don't want stay in a
different hotel room every night. We decided to start our
trip near Florence Oregon, stay three nights and then move north
to Seaside. We drove from Portland on the I5 to Eugene and
then cut across to Florence and basically just turned into the
parking lot of Sandland Tours.
My mission of recreating some of the Disney land experiences and I
figured a sandrail ride in the dunes was a pretty good
approximation to a roller coaster. I had booked tickets in
advance but looking at the crowds we probably could have dropped
in and been fine. You get a little ticket and told to wait
in parking lot. I think our Sandrail could seat 8 guests and
one retired Fedex employee who is clearly living his best life.
The sand dunes here are dedicated to
vehicles and they go one for kilometers to the South of where we
started. The sand dunes start looking like clouds in a sea
of trees. As you drive into the dunes are, the dunes look
like a sea and you can find islands of trees. It's quite a
transformation.
The drive made a lot of smart choices. This vehicle has a large
engine and good tires so it has no problem going fast. When
the drive is coming up a a dune, he turns near the top so he has a
good view before deciding to drop into the next bowl. He
will often go around the bowl using the acceleration outwards to
keep the vehicle pressed into the sand. Lots of power slides
which I think is easier with the custom rear tires.
I get sea sick and I was thoroughly wrecked by the time I got to
the end of the 30 minute ride. Claira seams to be immune to
motion sickness and she wanted to go back for an hour long
tour. Maybe another time.
Depoe Bay Whale Watching Trip
Victoria is spoiled for whale watching choice, but that doesn't
mean that whale watching in Oregon isn't good. Depoe bay
seams to get a few resident Grey Whales every summer and there is
a small industry going out and seeing the whales. I booked
this activity in advance. The whale watching company sends a
text message in the morning saying the weather is a go and we got
up to Depoe Bay for our 11am trip. Unfortunately the morning
weather turned poor and our tour was delayed an hour.
This is an hour and half tour and we basically race out of Depoe
Bay, turn left and see whales. Sadly, the rough water was
still around and even though there were several tour boats, the
Grey Whales quickly slipped away. We got the consolation
tour (see the Bald Eagle in Tree? That cliff is a Miden...)
and were back to where we started. I was glad we got see the
whale at least once.
Yaquina Head Light House
We started the drive back. Yaquina
Head Light House is the "if you are only going to see one light
house..." stop and has a really nice information center with both
human and wildlife history. From the cliffs around the
lighthouse you get a really nice view of bird colonies.
Newport Sealions
New for me on this trip, we decided to stop
in Newport for fresh seafood and we discovered the tourist zone
down by the water.
The barking of California Sea Lions is unmistakable and as we
walked down the road it got louder. We turned a corner and
found fifty plus Sea Lions hauled out on floating dock.
There was a crowd of people watching the sea lions and the sea
lions doing their best to try and sleep. The sea lions were
fascinating to watch - they do seam to want to sleep but every
little touch sets them off yelling at each other.
The kids really enjoyed watching the sea lions but the day was
getting on and we had to get back to our house.
As we drove South we explored a few of the
pull outs. Somehow my wife and kids figured out how to take
selfies and now I was back to car first.
You can see when the rocky headlands change to sand dunes as we
got closer to Florence.
Hiking Oregon Dunes Loop Trail
I do enjoy a good hike - there is no better
way of seeing wildlife than getting out and walking.
We needed to drive North today so Nara and
I got up early and drove to the Dunes Loop Trail head.
Sunrise seamed to peak just as we drove past Tahkenitch
lake. We pulled over and took a few photos of the dramatic
light on the clouds.
We pulled into the parking lot (which as empty) and was
immediately taken by the view. The start/end of the hike is
the highest point of the hike. From here you slide down the
sand dune into the giant sand box.
Once you get off the steep hill, you come to a fork in the
trail.
The trail is basically a km or so South,
turns to the beach and then you return by walking up the beach
before returning inland and finishing with a hike up a hill to the
parking lot.
I really like to see the plants that are colonizing the open
sand. They are small, close to the ground and even though it
was August they were quite pretty to see. Really, I should
have spent half an hour chasing plants but we had a check out time
back home and we still had 4+ km ahead of us.
When you get to the river, you turn toward
the beach and head through the trees. These trees are
familiar to the west coast, but the ground quickly becomes
sand. They only survive because of the frequent rain and the
thin soil that has built up on the sand.
Eventually you break through to the grass
covered coastal sand dunes and down to the hard sand of the
beach. There are quite a few notifications for a walk on the
beach - what to do in an earthquake and how to avoid damaging rare
bird habitat. (We didn't see the snowy plovers, but I think
it's the wrong season)
Walking on the hard sand is fantastic and
we made good time as we walked up the beach. We saw a dark
brown, fuzzy lump way up the beach that I worried was a bear, but
it turned out to be a short segment of log wedged into the sand.
We did manage to see birds in the sand shore. Being the only
people on the beach is a bit of a privilege.
Florence Sea Lion Cave
This is not really the season for the
Florence Sea Caves. Earlier in the year, cave is full of
noisy sea lions but this time of the year the sea lions are better
behaved and they are lying around on the rocks outside. The
kids still wanted to see it (and visit the gift shop) so we
stopped in and took the elevator down.
The sea cave has a higher entrance with a view of the rocks and
the nearby light house. We watched for a while a Pigeon
Guillemot stopped in only a meter or so from railing.
We continued our drive North, stopping in at the farmers market in
Yachats for lunch.
And some
clever quip... 
