July 20 - 23, 2002 Trip, continued

Then to the south end of Newport to see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Whales, seals, puffins, murres, cormorants, pelicans, and rocky shore intertidal organisms are some of the wildlife that live here. The lighthouse was completed in 1873 and has been called one of the most beautiful lighthouses in America. The first-order light is visible 19 miles out to sea. It's 93 foot tower is the tallest on the Oregon coast and it stands 162 ft above sea leavel. It was illuminated in 1873. An automated light now serves as an aid to navigation along the seacoast and at the entrance to Yaquina Bay.

birds nesting

View from the lighthouse

We headed south on highway 101 and found Seal Rock... home of the seal rocks! I didn't see any seals... but saw alot of rocks in the ocean.... but they didn't look like seals to me. The only rock that appeared to have a name was Elephant Rock... which, incidently, does NOT look like an elephant nor are there elephants living on it! Seal Rock was once the terminal of the Corvallis/Yaquina Bay wagon road - the central coast's first link iwth the interior valleys - and was once the site of a large resort motel built in 1887.





Further south, we stopped at the Sea Gulch. This is a cute little shop that is full of hand carved, chain sawed actually, statues of persons and lots of bears. I bought a couple of dolphins there, but would have loved to be able to afford one of the large bears or one of the people statues!!









The city of Waldport may be the flattest of all coastal towns at only 20 ft above sea level. The landmark for Waldport is the Alsea Bay Bridge, another of the WPA Bridges of the 1930's and one of the coast's longest bridges.

We headed back north to Newport for some dinner and to return to the condo to watch some tv and kick back for the night. We dined at the Apple Peddler which was okay as far as the food was concerned but I doubt I would go back if given a different choice!

July 22nd we packed up the car and headed south on Highway 101 again. We decided not to stop at Cape Perpetua outside of Yachats.

Yachats area

We did stop at Heceta Head Lighthouse north of Florence OR. It sits 205 ft above the ocean. The light at the top of the 56 ft tower was illuminated in 1894 and the automated beacon can be seen 21 miles from land. It is rated as the strongest light on the Oregon coast. The light keeper's house, built in 1893, offers bed and breakfst rentals and facilities for group events.



Next up was the Sea Lion Caves (91560 Hwy 101 N). I remembered going to the Sea Lion Caves when I was a youngster... but, I didn't remember all the walking involved! Mom didn't go to see the Sea Lions, her hips wouldn't have been able to take the climb back up to the offices. Not to mention that most of the "older crowd" that were there were almost in need of oxygen to make the trek. That was a pretty steep and sorta long walk from the outside "viewing area". The sea lions were lounging on the rocks outside and the marine layer was not in the way of taking photos of them.





After the hike back to the top, I descended to the other side, where there was an elevator to take you down 200' to the cave where the sea lions live. It was very dark in there and you're not supposed to take "flash" pictures of the inside because it might scare the sea lions. There were about 1/2 doz or so on a rock in the middle and I thought I had my camera fixed to not flash... but, darned if it didn't anyhow! sigh. Oh well, it didn't seem to bother them... except the one I hadn't seen in the darkness.... oh my gosh!! He started barking and carrying on... cripes.... I thought sure that the "flash bulb" police would be rushing in to arrest me at any second!!!

and, when I got the film back from the processor.... the picture was blank... sigh

I opted not to take the hike up what looked like 5 flights of stairs to get the "lighthouse" view of the sea lions!

We dined in Old Town Florence at a cafe Mom had been to that has a view of the river. It was a bit cold for dining outdoors, so we sat inside and watched the river from there! The food was okay, but it was under different management that took on the Mexican food, music, etc flair.

Next stop was at Darlingtonia Wayside. It is the home of Cobra Lillies, a carniverous plant that traps and digest insects for food. They weren't in bloom and I didn't get to see them eat any bugs or anything. But it is sorta cool that they are there!







We skipped by the Oregon Dunes... they are, afterall, just a bunch of sand that piled up! With a bunch of people riding dune buggies on them. Didn't seem too interesting so we didn't stop until we reached the Umpqua Lighthouse at Winchester Bay.

We ventured over to the Umpqua River Lighthouse 6 miles south of Reedsport and just before the entrance to Winchester Bay. An earlier structure, commissioned on the north spit of the river in 1857, was the first lighthouse sited on the Oregon coast. It fell into the river in 1861 after sand eroded under the foundation. The current structure with a 65 ft tower overlooks sand dunes from 165 ft elevation on the south side of the bay. It is identical to the Heceta Head Lighthouse and was commissioned in 1894. The lens emits distinctive red and white automated flashes.



Then wandered down to the Sportsman's Cannery and Gift Shop in Winchester Bay where I bought some yummy smoked halibut to snack on.

On the way back north to Hwy 38 & 138 which we would take to Roseburg, we stopped at the Myrtle Wood Factory Store in Reedsport. Myrtlewood is beautiful, but very expensive. I think southern Oregon is one of the few, if not the only, place it grows.

We traveled east on Hwys 38 & 138 to Roseburg. On the way there, we went through Scottsburg, which was classed as a ghost town, but, in fact, there are people that live there and there is only one, maybe two, of the original buildings. Neither were worth taking a pic of .... so I didn't!
Next in line was the town of Drain, also classed as a ghost town, although people do live there. I tried to find Anlauf which was supposed to be a mile off the highway... but, like BayOcean and Kernville.... it just wasn't there!! The area was sorta creepy though!

Elk at the reserve





We overnighted at Roseburg. Went to a couple of stores on the way to find some dinner but didn't buy a thing. Ate dinner at the Beef-n-Brew, which was delicious then retired back to the hotel. Mom went to her room and read or watched tv and I opted to jump into a swimsuit and indulge in the hot tub for awhile with a glass of Old GrandDad's whiskey! So, that's what I did. It was wonderful!! All that winding around on mountain and coastal roads was taking a toll on my neck and back! And there was still a long way to go!

July 23rd, after getting the car loaded up, we checked out and dined at the continental breakfast offered by the hotel before hitting the highway. Once on Hwy 138 eastbound we didn't stop until we reached Crater Lake.
Crater Lake is one of the state's treasures. It is truly beautiful and it's amazing that the lake is up there in the mountains... so deep and blue.


However, the road, once you start the real ascent to the lake, is absolutely awful! Very narrow, no shoulder most of the way to the lodge, and a sheer cliff on that side.
The lake is 5 miles wide and ringed by cliffs almost 2,000 ft high. The lake rests in the shattered remnants of a volcano called Mount Mazama which erupted and collapsed into itself 7,700 years ago. Later eruptions formed Wizard Island and other volcanic features, now hidden uder the lake. The lake is 1,943 ft deep and is the deepest lake in the United States, the 2nd deepest in the Western Hemisphere, and the 7th deepest in the world. In 1853, prospectors in search of gold found the lake. In 1869, the lake was named by James Sutton, editor of the Oregon Sentinel of Jacksonville, OR. William Gladstone Steel first visited in 1885 and largely due to his efforts, Crater Lake became a national park on May 22, 1902. Scientists have investigated Crater Lake for more than a century. Rim Village, where the larger lodge is, is at the 7,100 ft level. Crater Lake surface is at the 6,173 ft level.


I have to say that driving it made me nervous... well, ok... it was really really scary! The sign at the beginning of the ascent didn't make me any more confident either... it said something like "edge of road unstable, stay on roadway". Well, for Christ's sakes... there was only two places to go if you didn't stay in your tiny lane - into oncoming traffic or over the edge!! I didn't like it and I was grateful for the first "lookout point" for viewing the lake.





Now, not wanting you to think I'm too much of a "sissy", when I finally got out of the car and took a walk to the edge to look at the lake... the cliff there didn't bother me at all! The lake was pretty, although smokey because of all the fires in Oregon, and I felt I had been pretty silly being spooked at the skinny road thing. geez! So, after I smoked a couple dozen cigarettes, we took off for the lodge which wasn't too much farther up the road.
I instantly got nervous as soon as I hit the road... then I saw the first curve coming up... ok... same thing happened as happened on the last curve... sigh. Maybe I am a sissy!
Anyhow, finally crept around that corner, partially in the oncoming lane since the traffic was very very light. Hell on earth, its no wonder that road is closed in the winter!!!!
We had lunch at the first lodge, a foot long hot dog! It was pretty good far as hot dogs go. Then we ventured down the valley (no cliffside driving) to the other lodge. From there, I determined that there was no way in hell that I was going to drive around the lake and have to deal with more of those cliff things, nor was I going to drive 80 miles out of my way to exit the park on the south end and then hook into the highway heading north. Nope.... was going to go back over the road I had just gotten scared on... and exit where we entered. (Pretty brave, eh? LOL)
Going north on that road isn't near as bad because you're not on the cliff side, but I have to say that when those two curves came up, I felt a very strong twinge and shudder! I did note that the other drivers coming up the road were hugging, if not hanging over, the center line. So I felt better! At least I wasn't the ONLY sissy on the road!! LOL I did pull over so we could take a couple of pictures from the turnouts as we were leaving.






It does occur to me that legend tells us that there are ghosts at Crater Lake and in the lodge.... hmmmmmm.... maybe one was being mischievious with me!!! LOL
Breathed a sigh of relief as I exited the park and headed east on Hwy 138. Soon we hooked into Hwy 97 northbound and headed for Bend. I actually had planned to make a couple of stops on the way to Bend, but it was hot, we were running later than I had planned on, thunderheads were gathering to send some lightening down to make more fires and the area was definitely smokey. So I just drove. Mom decided to kick back and rest for a bit. So, when she reached down to get the release to let the car seat back recline..... it REALLY reclined! ha It went all the way back and she couldn't get it back up so she had to ride for a few miles looking at the ceiling of the car. Of course, I roared with laughter at the sight and dilemna, I couldn't help myself! She was giggling too... it was just to silly for words!
Gassed up in Bend and headed west on Hwy 20 to Sisters, OR.
Sisters is a very cute town. Quaint little (expensive) stores, but cute nonetheless!





Sisters is nestled in the foothills of the Three Sisters mountains, Mt Jefferson, and Black Butte. The smoke was too thick to get a good, or even a bad, shot of the Three Sisters mountains. We still had 160 miles to go to get to Mom's house, it was still hot, thunderheads were joining forces above us, we were both tired, and I felt like I been driving forever.... so we didn't waste any time hitting the highway westbound again!

Along the way was Mount Washington





Drove on until we came to Detroit Lake on the Detroit Dam Resevoir. What a long and beautiful lake! We stopped there, since it was dinner time and driving break time and got a burger at a local establishment located near the east entrance to the town. Its a cute little town... very "friendly" looking.



The lake is georgeous, so sparkling and blue. And so darned long too!!








Finally we arrived at Salem OR and Interstate 5!! Woo Hoo!! A real live INTERSTATE FREEWAY to drive on instead of a state highway!! LOL I couldn't wait to get to a rest stop and stretch my legs!! But, it wasn't where I thought it was so I had to wait a bit longer than I wanted to!
Next stop was to drop Mom off at her house, unload her stuff, say goodbye and trudge on to my own house! It felt so good to sleep in my own bed!!

The trip actually went very well, except that Crater Lake road thing, and most of it was very scenic and very pretty. It would have been nice if the marine layer would have completely burned off at the coast at least one of those days.. but it didn't and there was nothing to be done about it. I gotta say, the road trip was a bit ambitious, I think, considering all the winding roads, mountain roads, and coastal roads.... none of which were in real great condition, and many which were in terrible condition, I might add!!

Altogether, from Mom's house and back to her house was about 750 miles. Now for 4 days, that doesn't sound like much... but, I'm here to say, the terrain can make alot of difference!

Hope you enjoyed our trip. Take care!

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