With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when
Neil Diamond
There's only so many times you can use Willie Nelson's On the Road Again for the title of your blog regardless of how appropriate you feel it is. Even I have my boundaries...not many, but I have a few.
So today looking for a title that worked, I stumbled over one of my old favorites from Neil Diamond's Tap Root Manuscript (1970); He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother. Hahaha, there's a reason Neil has such a loyal following and you can hear it clearly here in this song.
And so, with that lead-in, let's start out on our long and winding road to fun and adventure. We're gonna bounce all over the landscape today. It was another Let's follow our nose and see where it goes kinda day.
But a small aside before we begin. It's in line with our traveling mindset and I wanted to share it with you because it's now on our bucket-list...The Seven Wonders of Oregon.
Yeah, this is the second year they've run this campaign designed to get folks out to see the natural beauty of The Beaver State. Here's how they put it:
There are 7 Wonders of the World and not a single one of them is here in Oregon. All we can figure is whoever came up with the list must have never set foot here. So we'll see your Wonders, world, and raise you 7 of our own.
We invite you to not just see them but experience them. Because our Wonders aren't just for taking pictures of - to truly say you've seen our Wonders, you have to get out of the car, hike down from the scenic vista and feel them beneath your feet.
Just remember: This is Oregon. So how you go about doing that is entirely up to you.
Hahaha, challenge accepted!! Our goal is to visit each of these natural wonders and get a patch (or pin) for it. Oh, and this challenge is accepted with conditions. We'll get there and then make the decision on whether or not we'll hike down from the scenic vista to feel them. Hahaha, let's not get silly here. Remember, whenever you go down you eventually have to come back up. And I'm not a big fan of up anymore. Nope, not at all.
So we'll keep you posted. I figure we have six Wonders left. We've pretty much done the Oregon Coast, at least the central part of the Oregon Coast. And we've done it pretty good although we recognize we have a lot more to do.
So, one down and six to go.
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OK, now let's get back to our current travels...along the Oregon Coast.
The idea was, and it wasn't all that well-developed of an idea, to head on up to the Cape Lookout State Park. We'd visited it before and Carol had found a number of sand dollars. We were thinking we'd go back and get a couple more...just for the heck of it. Now I tell you this was the original idea but, as you'll see, the story does grow in the telling as we rambled around and, literally, followed our nose.
Lunch is packed, got some beach shoes and all the cameras and binoculars so we're ready to go. On the road to adventure!!
Ah, on the road...again. We've been down this road before but it's still fresh and exciting to us.
It's easy to drive these roads. Time and miles seem to glide by easier on these country roads. We headed up The 101 until we got to the road to Pacific City.
That road cuts in along the coast.
Clay Meyers State Natural Area
Our first stop wasn't on the itinerary. Course we didn't have much of an itinerary to begin with, anyway. We've become quite good at using the follow-your-nose method of travel and it's worked for us.
Like this, the Clay Myers State Natural Area. We saw it and turned in, eezy, peezy, one-two-threesy.
Part of the Sand Lake Estuary, the park was purchased in 2000 for $2.8 million using lottery dollars. Isn't that nice to know that our lottery dollars are actually being used for something good? It has 180 acres in it.
It's a remarkable place; a virtually untouched coastal estuarine ecosystem bounded by the Sand Creek estuary. It's a valuable habitat for adult salmon moving upstream to spawn and for smolt as they leave fresh waters for their marine journey. It's an ecological potpourri and includes woodlands, grasslands, fresh and saltwater wetlands and a rare native dune sedge land. Species run the gamut from salmon and steelhead to shorebirds to deer, otter and even bears and cougars.
We didn't see any cougars or bears but there was plenty of other things to occupy ourselves with.
Hahaha, you can always tell a birder. They're always looking up and they usually have a pair of binoculars in their hands.
This was an interesting effect. I really reached out with the zoom, above 500, to get this guy clamming across the bay. When I downloaded the picture it looked more like an oil painting than a photograph. I zapped it with the enhance feature on iPhoto and, POW!! It became even more like a painting to me.
Honest, most of the times I'm totally surprised by what I get when I download. Mostly it's a pleasant surprise...like this. I thought it was interesting...one of my Happy Accidents.
Here's the wider view of the same scene as above. He's way out there on the right.
The tide, uh, is out. Hahaha, nothing like stating the obvious, eh?
It was turning out to be a semi-nice day. Some clouds but we were, for the most part, enjoying some welcome sunshine.
And we saw the Bat House. Hahaha, no, we didn't see Bruce Wayne or his young charge, Dick Grayson. But I looked.
Fun Facts: I was going to name the species of bat here in Oregon but I learned there are 14 different species that live here. Wha...!?!
So here's some facts:
- Oregon's bats eat only insects. An Adult bat eats about 1,000 insects every hour. And yet, there are still plenty of the little buggers to spoil my picnic. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Bottle Fly!!
- Bats hang upside down because it gives them an ideal position for take-off.
- Bats can fly 20 to 30 miles an hour and travel more than 100 miles a night.
- A baby bat is called a pup. Young bats can fly between two and five weeks of age.
- Bats are the only flying mammal. Hahaha, obviously they've forgotten about Woodstock. There were a lot of mammals flying around there.
Looking down the beach, the shoreline. Hmmmm, I wonder if this is part of the native dune sedge land they mentioned. Carol went exploring into the mudflats and found oyster and clam shells and several crabs. We also saw a Harrier on the hunt.
Just me playing with my zzzzzzoom...Hahaha, it's cool to stand far away and reach out.
I am a member of the Oregon Central Coast Photography Meetup and got one of their e-mails the other day announcing a meetup at the Yachats Waterfront. I was reading the short bio for the organizer and he mentioned he particularly enjoys shooting driftwood. Hahaha, challenge accepted.
This is my feeble attempt at shooting driftwood. It's not easy. I shot about 10 pieces of driftwood and they were all pretty boring. Hahahaha, I deliberately didn't include the vast majority of them. You're welcome.
Looking back. There's a small bridge over the estuary back to the road. The Natural Area is a small island. Well, a 180-acre island. Just beyond the road is the Siuslaw National Forest.
Fun Facts: The Siuslaw National Forest was established in 1908. It has more than 630,000 acres along the central Oregon Coast between Coos Bay, in the south, to Tillamook, in the north. In some places it extends east from the ocean beyond the crest of the Oregon Coast Range almost reaching the Willamette Valley.
Oh, it's not contiguous, either. Driving along the coast, you enter and exit the forest any number of times. It has a great motto, Land of Many Uses.
A Gull. Can't get away from them so you might as well get used to them, right!?!?!
(Hahaha, I actually wrote Seagull and then went back and corrected myself. I'm down with the cool birding terms.)
Looking south from the Natural Area. With a tiny little gull there in the right hand corner.
Hahaha, Ok, I know, I'm easily led. I'm a prime target for any kind of advertising...an impulse buyer of the First Order. It's why I won't allow myself to watch all the infomercials. I've been burned before. I bought some stupid waffle-like thing that was suppose to make all kinds of food. There's been other incidents where I got stupid at in the early morning with my credit card and a really good infomercial.
Anyway, this weakness for Ads and for being easily led is evident here in my trying to get a good shot of some stupid driftwood.
And it goes on. I'm sorry.
I also have a soft spot for red barns. C'Mon, you do too. They speak of a gentler time and a vastly different style of life that we all, sorta, hanker for.
Just an interesting arrangement.
This was an unexpected treat. That's what happens when you use the follow-your-nose method of traveling. Unexpected treats.
We passed through some farmland as we moseyed down the road. I was following my new philosophy of taking my time driving. Hahaha, you can see a lot more if you're not going as fast. And I was practicing my Highway Courtesy, too. I pulled over whenever I could to allow faster travelers to pass.
Cape Lookout State Park
Our next stop was at Cape Lookout State Park.
Fun Facts: A popular campground and day-use area, Cape Lookout is located on a sand spit between Netarts Bay and the ocean. You get a terrific view of the ocean here as well as easy access to the beach.
Beachcombing is popular here and, supposedly, this park is a good place to find glass floats. We didn't. But Carol did find some shells and one sand dollar.
More Fun Facts: The original acquisition for Cape Lookout was a 1935 gift of 975 acres on the cape from the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Additional land was purchased over the years up to 1988 to get the park to its present size.
Originally, the park was left undeveloped as a natural preserve and they limited development to a minimal picnic area at Jackson Creek with a trail to the cape. The picnic area was built by the CCC during the late 30s. In 1954 they opened a small campground which quickly grew to nearly the size of today's campground by the end of the 50s.
During WWII, an Army Air Force B-17 bomber struck the cape while on coastal patrol on August 1st, 1943. It is such a wild area that it took a full day for the rescue crews to reach the sole survivor.
The campground is spread along the road paralleling the beach. It goes about a mile and then there's this round-about.
There's a dune that separates the campground from the beach.
Unlike the beach near our house, this one has some very fine sand. Makes it tougher to walk, or slog in my case, through it.
It was, despite its benign appearance, a formidable hill.
Hahaha, I'm so doggone lazy!!
I know you won't be able to see her, but that's Carol waaaaay off in the distance there, wandering along the beach looking for treasure. I spotted her and deliberately took her picture but I had to blow up the picture just to make sure she was in it.
When she's on the trail I just sorta wait around. Woman's got an agenda!!
While she was wandering around, she saw this guy. He was in a puddle and is maybe as big as a quarter.
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And this guy, a By-the-Wind Sailor.
They're still washing up on the shore...and dying.
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No, no. I'm not doing driftwood. Hahaha, this is just a shot to let you see the beach. Looking north...
...and looking south.
And, looking south, I saw this. Hang gliders. I use the plural because although you can't see the second one, he's there. floating a bit higher. It was like they were stationary. They didn't seem to be going anywhere, just hanging.
Carol had moved a bit closer to me when I took this long shot and so she's not in it. Reaching out and looking down the beach. With a piece of driftwood thrown in for fun.
It was becoming a semi-nice day, weather-wise. I had to go back and get a jacket but that's to be expected on the beach. Them winds ain't easy.
Dora the Exploer!!
My faithful Mini. She's getting a little bit long in the tooth. This May she'll be 8 years old. Whew, that's old!!
Fun Facts: Have you ever wondered about that term, Long in the tooth?
Well, wonder no more. It's pretty well-known it means someone who is getting old or is, gasp, actually old.
The phrase originates from horses, or more specifically, it comes from the ability to tell a horse's age by looking at their teeth. The longer the teeth, the older the horse. Thus, the phrase is used to describe how someone or something is getting along in years.
Here's an example taken from an article printed in 1889 from the Huron Daily Huronite newspaper. Someone was in the market to buy a horse and while looking over a possible purchase, he had his doubts about the age:
"Open his mouth. What did you say his age was? I think he's a little long in the tooth. Seven years did you say he was? I should call him 10 or 11 years old."
Oops!!
While the phrase began with horses, it eventually was applied to describe the age in humans, too.
We're thinking of coming out and camping here some day. Carol was disappointed by how few sand dollars there were today. I guess you've got to get on the beach earlier in the day to have a chance to get sand dollars. We figure if we camp there, she can be out and hunting for treasure real early.
And, we were moving on down the road again. Out in the distance, in the ocean, are the Storm, Finley, Shag and Seal Rocks. We're coming up on Netarts.
Netarts, OR
And here we are. We'd had eaten lunch earlier at Cape Lookout and by now I was feeling like a DC. Get this, we'd stopped in Pacific City for a DC and the store had plenty of Pepsi on hand but they were sold out of Diet Coke. SOLD OUT OF DC!! Ah, the horror!!
One of my big complaints about this area is that they are predominately a Pepsi-oriented country. All along the coast they tend to favor, for reasons I cannot understand, the Pepsi brand.
Craziness.
I wanted me a DC and so we pulled into a small store in Netarts. Oh, heck who am I kidding, they're all small stores in the towns along the coast. Fortunately, this one had one cooler set aside for Coke products and, yes, Virginia, they did have a DC.
Thank goodness!!
They also had a pretty busy main street.
See!?!
In addition to my DC, Carol got herself something, too.
I do like the name of this store. Guy's truthful, ain't he!!
And they had helpful road signs.
Jes Go That-A-Way...
Although the road signs were helpful, we really didn't need them. We're just following our nose so...
We did take a short walk through the busy burg. Some real nice older motels and inns along the shore. Some are very original, you can tell they're originals and reflect the time they were built.
And one of the motels had flowers out.
Hahaha, it's spring in Oregon, why not!?!
I do have that soft spot for flowers.
We were making our way back to the Mini at the market when somehow, for some amazing reason, Carol struck up a conversation with Ted and Lenita. (I'll apologize, again, for my inability to remember names. Oh, I got Ted's alright. Three letters and I think I've heard it before. But Lenita's (??) threw me...and I repeated it several times as we left to help me remember. I think it's correct but I wouldn't bet any money on it. Forgive me!!)
They were tooling around the area visiting from Portland. We got into an animated conversation about the area and then we learned that Lenita is an artist and she showed us some of her work.
This one is my favorite. We invited them to come down and visit with us in Lincoln City (LCO) and, small world, Lenita told us her Mom used to teach school in LCO and she lived there as a child. Hahaha, it's a small world, after all.
Before we let them go, we gave them in invite to come on down and visit us at the beach. Oh, and a card, too. We gave them one of our cards. They had just bought a crab for lunch and were heading up to Oceanside to eat.
That was fun.
And then we were off again. We were still heading north. Next stop is Oceanside, OR.
But before we get there, we enjoy the drive.
Oceanside, Oregon.
So we're coming into Oceanside. A small city sitting on the side of a hill next to the ocean. And as we enter, literally, because on the left, that's the first house you meet coming into the town, we see this sight.
Three deer wandering. Down the road. Towards us.
OK, I expected nautical things but seeing these deer, well, this was unexpected.
Hola, Bambi!! Que tal? Quien es tu amigo?
Three of the rocks out in the ocean. Seal Rock is the smallest and isn't visible here.
Reminds me of Cicely, Alaska. After the snow melted.
After Oceanside, we headed out toward Bay City just because.
A small mea culpa here. I used two cameras today. My small one, the one I used for most of my 'road' shots was set to 'P' instead of 'Auto'. The light wasn't set correctly and I didn't realize my error until I got back and downloaded the pictures.
You'll see a number of pictures where the color is just off.
Oops.
As we used to say back in my error-prone youth, Sorry 'bout dat.
Wasn't much there but we did get to see this '74 VW for sale. Only $6,000.
I was tempted. Yes, I was. Hahaha, if it had been a '66 Bug.
It appeared to have been recently repainted. Unfortunately, the bumpers were still rusty.
Hmmmmmm...
To get to Bay City, you have to travel through Tillamook and so, after we'd turned around, we thought it'd be a great idea to stop at the Cheese Factory and let Carol get herself some ice cream and I could get some of those Squeaky Cheddar Cheese Curds.
And so, we were off to the Cheese Factory.
The Tillamook Cheese Factory
Wasn't as busy there as it was the last time we were there and we were able to park in the front parking lot and so I was able to take a closer look at the Morning Star.
Fun Facts: Tillamook residents built Oregon's first official ship, the Morning Star, to carry their dairy goods to market. At the time, the rough wagon trails over the mountains took too long so the sea-faring Morning Star helped bring fresh dairy products to Portland where they could be distributed more widely. Today they still carry a small Morning Star Schooner on their logo.
Internet - Tillamook Cheese
Woo, woo!! Let's go!!
Someone was excited. Even though there weren't many people there, there was still a pretty good-sized line waiting for ice cream.
I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. In fact, given a choice between ice cream and cheese, why, I'll probably take the cheese 9.5 times out of 10.
Hahahaha, C'Mon, Man!! It's cheese!!
And they were curds!!
After I got my cheese, I check on Carol...still in line way over there on the left.
So I headed over to the gift shop to wander around while I waited.
There's the Morning Star again.
That would look good on my mantle.
I admit I am a real Looky-Lu when it comes to shopping. I enjoy walking around a store. I rarely buy but I do enjoy looking.
And they've got a pretty good gift shop there at the Cheese Factory. Filled with all kinds of stuff that serves no real purpose other than to decorate the house. And plenty of that, too.
When I went back to check on Carol she was just waiting for her treat to be put together.
Woo, woo!! A Hot-Fudge Sundae!!
Fun Facts: Who wudda thunk!! There's a great deal of controversy about the exact origins of the Ice-Cream Sundae. At least four cities claim they're the birthplace of the frosty treat. I'm gonna go wit the one from Evanston, Illinois, simply because it sounds like the most fun one.
So Evanston was one of the first locations to pass a blue law against selling ice-cream sodas in 1890, some ingenious confectioners and drug store operators in Evanston obeyed the law but got around it by serving the ice cream with the syrup of your choice without the soda. For you too young to remember a time when there was just one phone in your home and TV had 3-7 channels only, they would actually mix up the soft drink there, in the store by mixing the syrup with the soda. Yeah, I know. Wha...!?!?!
So by serving up the syrup and the ice-cream only, they complied with the law...and created a new treat. The sodaless soda was called the Sunday Soda. As sales of the dessert continued on Mondays, local Methodist leaders then objected to naming the dish after the Sabbath, so the spelling of the name was changed to sundae.
As I've mentioned, there are several other, credible claims, for the distinction of being the first city to serve up a Ice-Cream Sundae. Do some research and find your favorite.
Almost done!!
Finally!!
Hahaha, With great patience comes great rewards.
Satisfied, me with my cheese and Carol with her Sundae, we eventually headed out again. This time we pointed our nose to the south for the return back to Gull House.
And to get there, The 101 takes us past this old relic from a time long past which is now the Tillamook Air Museum.
Fun Facts: During WWII, the U.S. Navy stationed eight large blimps at the Tillamook Naval Air Station. The Blimps were used for Anti-Submarine coast patrol and convoy escort.
Constructed by the Navy in 1942, the hangar building housing the aircraft are 1.072 feet long and 296 feet wide, giving it over 7 acres of area. It stands at 192 feet tall. The doors weigh 30 tons each and are 120 feet tall.
More Fun Facts: To house these flying behemoths, two of the largest wood structures in the world were built at Tillamook's Naval Air Station as hangars to house the Blimps. Hangar B can be seen on the left and Hangar A is on the right. The hangars were two of the 17 built by the Navy.
Hangar B is the only one left today, the one you see in the picture above and is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world. Hangar A was destroyed by fire in August, 1992.
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The Blimps regularly patrolled Clatsop Beach at Seaside. The Blimps were effective in that they moved slow enough that they could spot the enemy submarines that patrolled the northern Pacific waters.
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Soon we were zipping, at a stately and regal 55 MPH, down The 101.
And, just because it was that kind of day, I stopped at a familiar rest stop.
I thought I'd give Carol a chance to process her inner chicken.
We've been here before and it is a pretty area alongside the river...
...and the chicken ranch.
Carol went right down and began talking with them. Oh, she used to raise her own chickens so there's that.
One of the ladies even jumped the fence to come over and talk with Carol.
Hahaha, I photo-bombed this picture. Can you see me? I'm the chubby little blue spot there on the left between the trees.
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I had shot some picture at this small rest stop before and was disappointed in them. I wanted another...wait for it...shot at this place. Hahahahahah!!!
Ol' Rockin' Robin.
I think I did marginally better than last time.
Hey, as long as there's discernible improvement then it's worthwhile, right!?!
Right!?!
And we got to meet this gal, Dottie. An 11-year old Jack Russell. Still looking good for her age.
I'm getting there.
Uh, thanks for being patient. Now, let's go on to our next adventure.
Munson Creek Falls State Natural Site
I've seen the signs for this place before and today, since we had the time and the resources and I definitely had the inclination, we stopped. Well, we didn't so much stop as we turned off the highway and drove along a dirt road for a couple miles to get to it.
It wasn't too bad although there were some substantial potholes. And I'm pretty sure I managed to find each and every one of them.
Each and every one.
This part of the trip is mostly a scenic trip. I'll give some information but mostly you can just scroll down and take a look at the forest we walked through to get to the Falls.
Fun Facts: The park is home to ancient western red cedar and Sitka spruce. It's also an important spawning ground. Munson Creek Falls tumbles 319 feet, making it the tallest waterfall in the Coast Range. There's a short, a quarter-mile, trail that winds along Munson Creek to the waterfall. During the late fall through the winter you can watch the waters for spawning salmon.
Oh, we did encounter some of the 'wild' life in the forest.
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We were able to enjoy the very small, this flower would fit into a dime.
To the ridiculously tall. These were waaaaay up there.
It was like a rain forest with lots of ferns and moss.
The trail wound its way up and down towards the Falls.
I think they're fudging a bit on that quarter-mile thingie. It might be a bit more IMHO.
But we finally saw the Falls.
Through the trees.
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And there it is.
After enjoying it, we turned back towards the Mini. And I resolved as I made my way back to never do another mountain trail in my flip-flops again.
D'oh!!
We had numerous opportunties to stop and enjoy...and rest.
Hahaha, Carol chose wisely in footgear, too.
Whoa!! That slug must have covered like two, maybe three inches from the last time we saw him.
Slow down, Speed Racer!!!
And, finally, the Mini.
Now to navigate our way out of the forest trying, hopefully, to avoid some of the potholes I'd found on my trip in.
And so we set ourselves to the drive back on The 101. It was over 35 miles and I can honestly say it wasn't a chore or difficult.
Hahaha, there's just too much to look at...
...and enjoy.
Until we made it to The Jetty.
It'd been a long day but it was fun.
Hahaha, this day was great. I was surprised at how much we were able to pack into it. There were just so many opportunities that we, honestly, couldn't do everything we might have. And still, we'd been busy the whole day.
Hahaha, every so often I stop and think to myself that if this is retirement I don't know why some folks don't like it. I'm all for this. It works for me.
OK, I know this blog was a bit long but we were out from around 0900 until sometime after 1800. We was trucking. We was living!!
Life is good.
Hooah!!
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