Day 463: More lighthouse sightings

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Ben

Today we headed south out of Florence. A strong wind brought a temperature increase of over 10 degrees over 30 minutes or so.

Our first stop was in Reedsport, where we stopped by the visitor center for Oregon Dunes NRA, which administers the Oregon Dunes, the largest coastal dune field in North America. The kids began work on their Junior Ranger books, but will have to complete them through activities in the dune field, which is not adjacent to the visitor center, and mail the workbooks back when done.

Next we visited the Umpqua Lighthouse:

The lighthouse has a fascinating history. The part I found most interesting was that the lighthouse tenders petitioned to have the original lighthouse abandoned after storm damage, and when the petition was finally approved, the original lighthouse shook and swayed just after the lens was removed. The tenders fled the lighthouse, and the tower fell moments later.

The new lighthouse is built on a bluff above the river mouth, so it’s safe from wave damage:

Continuing south, we hiked a portion of the John Dellenback trail in the Oregon Dunes NRA. The kids found quite a few Rough-skinned Newts:

We hiked past a small dune field within the forest:

Trish found this mushroom, which was seven inches tall:

We found a couple snails too:

At last we reached the main dune field. Another two hours of walking across the dune field would get us to the ocean:

On the way back:

We had originally planned to overnight at the casino in Coos Bay, but it turns out they now charge to sleep in their dirt parking lot next to the highway, so we continued on to overnight at the South Jetty at the mouth of Coos Bay. It’s nice and quiet here, save for the crashing of the waves against the Jetty. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 462: Lincoln City, OR to Florence, OR

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Ben

This morning we walked down to the beach at Lincoln City. It was really cold:

Sand was blowing across the beach:

Heading south, we pulled of at Boiler Bay State Wayside to take a look at the kelp “fields”:

Our next stop was Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, home of the Yaquina Head lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. We watched the video in the visitor center:

The model of the lighthouse is in the foreground, with a to-scale model of the light itself in the background:

This exhibit shows how the first-order Fresnel Lens, made by Fresnel himself in France in 1868, bends the light so it all gets sent out to sea:

The kids received their Junior Ranger badges. This is a BLM visitor center, not an NPS visitor center, so the badge looks a little different:

Sadly, the lighthouse is wrapped in Tyvek over scaffolding for repairs, so we didn’t go out to see the lighthouse itself.

Unfortunately, Newport’s Hatfield Marine Science Center was closed. The Oregon Coast Museum, also in Newport, was a little to expensive for us at $75ish admission for the four of us, so we continued south.

Next we stopped at Devil’s Churn to watch the waves crash in. The ocean was mellow, so there wasn’t much action:

Tonight we are overnighting at the Three Rivers Casino in Florence, Oregon. See the trip map for our current location and today’s drive.

Day 453: Olympic National Park

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Ben

This morning we said goodbye to the Seven Cedars casino and drove West to Sequim, where we found the cheapest diesel I’ve ever seen:

From there, we continued West to Port Angeles and Olympic National Park:

The kids worked on the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

The road to Hurricane Ridge climbs about 5000 feet of vertical over 18 miles from the visitor center, so I decided to give it a shot:

It was raining on the way up with 20 mile and hour winds and it was in the high 30s at the top, so I was soaked and pretty miserable by the time I reached the summit:

Not much of a view today:

4895 feet of vertical over 17.9 miles:

After the ride, we drove back into Port Angeles to overnight at the Walmart. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 412: John Day Fossil Beds NM

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Ben

Today we visited the Sheep Rock unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument:

The visitor center, built in the last 15 years, is so much better than the old facility and does a great job of explaining the rich fossil record found here:

Since I used worked at Hancock Field Station in the Clarno Unit of the Monument (we also spent a weekend there on this trip), I was especially interested to see the portion of the visitor center that dealt with the Hancock Mammal Quarry:

Research continues on-site:

The kids received their Junior Ranger badges:

We continued on to visit the Painted Hills unit of the Monument. There’s no visitor center here, just great views of the multi-colored hills:

Continuing on, we drove over Mount Hood to arrive in Portland where we will be for the next three weeks for Rosh Hashanah through Simchas Torah. See the trip map for driving details.

Day 411: Hagerman Fossil Beds NM and Minidoka NHS

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Ben

Today we visited Hageman, Idaho to visit the visitor center for Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. The Monument includes a portion of the Oregon Trail, so the visitor center had an Oregon Trail dress-up station:

Hagerman Fossil Beds are of the Pliocene Epoch, so they’re quite recent, relatively speaking:

The visitor center also houses an interim exhibit for Minidoka NHS. Like Manzanar and Heart Mountain, both of which we’ve visited (here and here), Minidoka is one of ten sites in the US where nearly 11,000 Americans were imprisoned during World War II for being of Japanese descent: