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 461: Ocean Shores, WA to Lincoln City, OR

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Ben

Today we said goodbye to the Quinault River Casino in Ocean Shores, WA and drove south towards Oregon. We took on some gas in Cosmopolis, then crossed into Oregon over the Columbia River in treacherous crosswinds on the Astoria–Megler Bridge.

“But isn’t that the the longest continuous truss bridge in North America?” you may ask. Why yes, yes it is.

At the Astoria public dump station, I asked where the Oregonians in front of us were from. They mentioned they were from a small town near Jewell that I had never heard of, and asked me where in South Dakota we were from (since we have SD plates). I told them we were fulltime RVers, but before I got much farther, they asked if we knew Jason and Carrie. Turns out that they were friends, and Jason and Carrie had told them about our trip a few weeks prior. Small world!

After stopping in Warrenton for groceries, gas, DEF, and a battery for one of the RV TPMS sensors, we continued south to Tillamook, where we stopped in at the cheese factory to buy ten blocks of kosher cheddar.

Continuing south, we arrived at our overnight destination, the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City, OR:

It’s still barely breaking 50 degrees during the day, and it’s supposed to be in the mid-30s tonight. We will continue south tomorrow.

Day 460: Big Wing, Little Wing

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Ben

We’re still here at the Quinault Casino, hopefully our last day here. It was a beautiful day, so we went out on the beach. B found a nice kelp strand:

We brought out the kite (AKA little wing):

I chased the kids around with the kite:

Patterns in the sand:

More giant kelp:

Sadly, it looks like I wont be able to fly at Copalis airstrip during this visit. The winds were really strong out of the west yesterday, and tomorrow will be really strong out of the east. Today the winds were in transition, but it was still gusty and 15+ mph in different directions throughout the day, so I decided to stay on the ground today. I did get out the big wing and practice some kiting. All the clam diggers have gone home, so we pretty much have the parking lot to ourselves:

Dancing? Fighting? Who knows:

We hope to head South into Oregon tomorrow.

Update: The kids have added podcasts to the bottom of the posts for Day 455 (Olympic National Park) and Day 440 (San Juan Islands).

Day 459: Hangin’ with the clam diggers

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Ben

Like the time we accidentally embedded in a motorcycle hillclimbing competition, or a Brittany field trial competition, this Shabbos we accidentally found ourselves in the narrow band of Washington’s coast that allows non-natives to dig clams for an eight-day period centered on this weekend. The Quinault Casino RV lot, in which we were the only tenant since we arrived on Wednesday night, was completely full by Saturday afternoon. All the RVs were local, and come 8pm, when the allowed dig time began, the lot was eerily quiet, until about midnight when everyone came back from the beach.

Here’s the view this morning, after some of the RVs had already left:

After homeschool, we drove into town to do a bit of shopping. I drove down to the airport, as unfortunately my dream of PPGing from Copalis airstrip was denied by high winds today. Tomorrow has calmish winds from the East, so that rules out Copalis, as the bluffs above the beach would cause rotor on the beach, but the airport will have easterly winds coming in over the bay, so it should be calm.

We stopped in at a great kite shop and browsed for a bit: