Day 8 - Gold Beach OR to Oregon City OR
Day 8 - 24 June 2006 - Saturday
--- Starting in Gold Beach, Oregon ---
Our motel was extremely nice, and had the most comfortable beds
of the entire trip. We got up early because we had a lot of ground
to cover.
Kristina and I managed to set off the smoke alarm when making bagels
for breakfast.
We drove up the coast on US 101, stopping in Bandon at Bandon Beach:
Here we saw a starfish:
And seals:
And a sea arch:
And Sea Anemones:
We got to spend a lot of time on the beach, although it was a bit cold
and windy. We were looking for agates, for which this part of the coast
is famous.
We kept driving up Highway 101. We drove through Coos Bay, which is
one of the largest exporters of wood chips (
Excelsior!):
We drove through the
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. There were miles and miles
of giant sand dunes looming over the highway, but I did not get
any good pictures of that. Here are some much smaller dunes:
We stopped at
Sea Lion Caves but didn't actually pay to go down and see the
Sea Lions. From there you could see the Haceta Head Lighthouse:
Further up the road we stopped at the Devil's Churn (one of a number
of sites belonging to the Devil on this trip). It is a narrow
inlet that can cause massive eruptions of spray when the waves hit it
right. Here is what it looks like from above:
We walked down along it, here is a small wave causing spray:
Not much further up the road is Newport OR, the start of US Route 20!
This is the far end of the road I was at the other end of in Boston MA
just a few days before. Here is the start:
We stopped at Agate Beach, again looking for agates
(at least this beach had
rocks visible, which is a good start). We found lots
of pretty stones, some of which might be agates. Here is what the
beach looked like:
We then started getting stuck in tourist traffic as we got closer to
civilization. We drove through Lincoln City, the home of the D River,
which claims to be the "shortest in the world" (which really annoyed
Kristina) (Coming as it did right after the world's
smallest harbor).
We stopped at Munson Falls, said to be the tallest on the Oregon Coast:
We kept heading north to Tillamook, home of the
Tillamook Cheese Factory.
We went in, but due to newer machinery the factory doesn't make any cheese
on the weekend. So we had to content ourselves to looking at idle
machines. We did get some ice cream there (I got rootbeer float flavored).
(and squeaky cheese curds!).
Our goal for the evening was to meet some of Kristina's extended family.
We were already running very late, so we turned away from the coast,
and headed over the mountains toward Portland. We drove through
Portland, and arrived at Oregon City, the final destination of the
Oregon Trail:
Luckily they had saved some food for us, and we got a tour
of their beautiful yard, along with a very prolific garden.
--- Ending in Oregon City, Oregon ---
Continue on to Day 9