Columbia River and now Washington State

A few hours ago, we left Oregon and said goodbye to a wonderful state. We spent one week traveling along the coast, and said more "wows" and took more pictures here than anywhere else on this trip.  I want to share pictures of three particular days...the beach, the slough (pronounced slew), and the dunes.

Our first camping spot in Oregon was Bullard's Beach SP on the shores of the Coquille River.  From the campground we explored some small dunes, a stony flat section of beach and met our first agate hunters.  Mostly as a hobby, people search the beaches for this particular form of stone.

We also started to experience a special feature of the coast, the lighthouses.  The is the Coquille River Lighthouse.

Across the River, along the beach in the town of Bandon, we had one of our most spectacular beach walks.  The sunlight, the rocks, the birds and seals, the sky, the tidal pools all worked magic for us that day.  You can see what I mean.

         

        The Giant Pacific Green Anemone

         The edges of the rocks had seals enjoying the sun.  This newborn pup wa so cute.

The rocky island were covered with bird colonies and we saw Common Murre, Pigeon Guillomots, and Brandt's Cormorants.

Needless to say,we were actually "high" after this day.  We just keep saying how grateful and happy we were to share in such beauty.

The next day we ventured off to a spot that our friends Stan and Alida, from the Keys,  told us about. Stan is native to Oregon and they enjoy nature and especially the birds along with us. On Coos Bay, we found this special spot he recommended.

 

The hiking was through the rich and luscious forest and found some new creatures and plants on the walk.

     The Banana Slug with spots this time.

       

       The Rough Skinned Salamander

       A Land Snail

 

     The naturalist at the Slough told us this is a saprophyte.

       Pacific Rhodendron blooming everywhere.

     Part of the Slough and Estuary.  There was a Yellowlegs feeding in the edges, and I saw my first 

     Chestnut-backed Chickadee and a pair of Wilson's Warblers in the woods near here.

              This picture is taken from my National Geographic Bird Book.

On the way back to the campground, we saw a sight somewhat new to us. A commercial Oyster Company and the proof of their business along the road.

Our travel has been adding so much to our lives each day.  We saw a place called the Triangle near Winchester Bay where the oysters are grown and harvested each day.  We found an eating spot and I had three as an appetizer to be sure I didn't miss any special gift of the area. Delicious!

We had one more good hiking day before some rain was predicted. We had been seeing signs for the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and realized that is encompassed miles and miles of dunes along the coast.  These of course act like the barrier islands we had seen along the Atlantic, but we were impressed with description of the length and height of these sand piles.  We decided to venture on a hike into this area and chose the John Dellenback Dunes Trail.  This was billed as one of the top ten hikes along the coast of Oregon.  

     

     First half of mile was through the woods...

       

     The next two and half miles were through the dunes following poles for trail markers. We made,it to the beach and found hundreds of Peeps feeding in the surf and a notice that Snowy Plovers were present.  We didn't see any but it is always encouraging to see these protected spots.

     When we did the loop back over the beac, through the dunes and finally back along the woods trail we had only one thing to do...empty the dunes out of our shoes!  What another great day.  We rejoiced that we were still healthy and strong enough for a challenging but rewarding hike through the Oregon Dunes.

We had a few more adventures.  Buying some famous Tillomook cheese after a visit to the factory and visiting several more lighthouses and national forests.  During the rainy days these were fun things to do.  One day was so stormy we just stayed put!

Now the sun is out, and we have started a new adventure in Washington.

One small note about a little slip yesterday.  We were taking funny pictures of Latona and she was swinging her arms around and laughing and inadvertently stepped off the edge of the parking lot and down she went.  She scraped the skin off both knees and one hand, but as she always does got up laughing and said, "oh well, the price of stardom!"  

Special note of gratitude for tomorrow.  Thanks to my wonderful daughter who made me a mother, and to my own precious mother for sharing life with me.

Along the coast of Oregon

We had decided to travel along US Route 101, continuing from Northern California into Oregon and eventually into Washington State.  This is the coastal road and bears many names like the Redwood Highway and the Oregon Scenic Coastal Highway.  It will mean missing many places but will offer opportunities like our last camping spot in CA, a state park called Patrick's Point SP.  

We chose the high end camping area so we could have a view of Agate Beach from the van.  It was worth the extra dollars, and we enjoyed the light and surf patterns during sunset our first evening.

The ranger at the gate told us about the part of the park where we could get first-hand sightings of Sea Lions and Seals.  Early the second day of our visit, we headed along the Rim Trail, along the coast, 

anticipating what we might see and hear at Palmers Point.  The barking noises came to our ears much before the sighting of the Sea Lions.  The larger ones are called Stellar Sea Lions.

This was quite a thrill! We had seen the California Seals earlier at Point Arena and now had wonderful experiences with the wild Sea Lions calling for their mates.

Along the trail there were other interesting things to see.  Like the Western Trillium and the Banana Slug.

And we continue to be blessed with lush vegetation and fun spots for a joyful moment...

Our site provided a visit from a friendly bird that has always been one our favorites from Baxter State Park.  That is the Gray Jay.  I almost jumped up and down when I saw it the first time.

It came closer for a better look and a hopeful chance to steal something to eat. Not on our watch however, and the Steller Jay was also watching along with the rabbit.

As often happens, we met a nice neighbor-camper, Cork, who gave us lots of helpful ideas about the miles ahead and we wished him well as he entered the land of retirement.  So we said goodbye to him, and to Agate Beach Saturday morning.

We stopped to visit a Yurok Village replica that was near the exit of the park.  We had read about it and didn't want to miss seeing it. 

         One of the houses. (I worried a bear might use the door too)

           Hand carved boat from Redwood

         Appeared to be a root cellar

The village was actually built by some of the native people who still live in this area and were invited by the park to built this replica.  It sits in the middle of a beautiful forest of Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir.

Eventually, we headed north on our familiar US Route 101 and it wasn't long until we began to see changes. First was the sign to say we had entered into a new state.

We needed to fill the van with diesel fuel, and noticed that gas was cheaper almost immediately.  

The highway took us very close to the wild and amazing Pacific and the coastline was dramatic and thrilling.  Wish I could really share all we saw and as we saw it, but here are a few shots.

There are so many things to see and places to visit so we are spending today looking over the maps and books and deciding which spots we will choose.  The book we got from the State Visitor Center even tells us where to go to (hopefully) see the California Gray Whale now on migration from Mexico to the Aleutians for the summer.  A 10,000 mile migration!  Another treasure hunt!  Love it!

Funny footnote...Latona just hanging around!

Almost Oregon

Who knew that California has a Lake District.  We needed a few days to catch up on errands, etc, so we picked an RV park called Pine Acres on Blue Lake and started to catch up with ourselves.

 It was near the town of Ukiah where we found a laundromat and grocery store and Walgreens.  And although we were north of Santa Rosa it was the closest location of a Mercedes-Sprinter dealer where we had the van serviced.  As we traveled to do our errands we continued to be amazed by the vineyards - even saw one with Kendall-Jackson name on the fence.

We had fun doing a great hike around the lake and so enjoyed the spring flowers, especially the California Poppies.  We hit it right for these beautiful flowers that cover the sides of most roadways, fields and hillsides. Here they are with Lupine.

Of course, I spent time trying to find the local birds and getting a few pictures of what I could see.

          Brewer's Blackbird

          Barn Swallow

  

                                  

                                        Either Bullocks or Hooded Oriole

We moved on on May 1, and made a stop at Point Arena following a suggestion from our friends Stan and Alida.  This is one of the protected promontories along the coast.  We hoped to see some of the wildlife and enjoyed rich sightings of many seals, most with pups.

We were traveling on highway 101, the coastal California route called the Redwood Highway.  We read about the Avenue of Giants, a 31 mile side route through some of the oldest, tallest trees on earth.

We tried to capture a sense of these trees in our pictures.

                                 

                                 

There is a quote we found at the visitor center, made by John Steinbeck that captured our feelings as well.

We also saw the sign for the  Humbolt National Wildlife Refuge and stopped to see what we could learn. Audrey, the volunteer in the visitor center told us about the wonderful recovery story of the Cackling Goose that winter at Humbolt and return to the Aleutians for the summer.  They had been decimated because of the introduction of foxes by the Russians on the island chain, but over any years a small band found their way to northern CA and now over 50,000 winter there.  They left by mid-March, but I wanted to share at least the image of this resilient bird.

                                     

           Black Phoebe

                    

                             Marsh Wren

         Cinnamon Teals

We have another day at our current location north of Eureka, called Patricks Point State Park and then on to Oregon tomorrow.  But  I will wait to share photos of this place, Agate Beach, and the Sea Lions and the happy visit from the Gray Jay.

Now for the "funny" footnote.  Just in case anyone wonders, I thought I would give you all a glimpse of our "sometime" reality.  Yes, sometime we get cabin fever in the van.  Yes, sometimes it is too small for both of us at the same time. And yes, every once in a while we want to give up driving up and down mountains, around hairpin turns, and hearing Latona gasp in fear on many roads without guardrails.

But dreams take hard work, cooperation, and perseverance. We have enough of all we need!  Thank the good Lord!  Love and hugs...