Happy birthday, America! Our days are so bunched together that we had
to think about what day it was. We
didn’t get to see any fireworks on this day but that was okay. We had a pretty good showing last night and
we were discussing that we’ve actually had quite a few July 4ths were we didn’t
have fireworks on the day. Many drought
years kept them from even happening.
We left our lovely campground next to the
ocean and continued south. We actually
lucked out and found a few lighthouses, of which one we could walk up
into.
Our first was early so there wasn’t even
someone there to answer questions. We hiked up to Devil’s Elbow State Park to
see the Heceta Head Lighthouse. Good
little walk, and great views of the ocean.
It is easy to see why there was/is such a need for lighthouses when you
see all the rock outcroppings in the water! It wouldn’t take much for a ship to
strike and sink.
The Umpqua Lighthouse is a working
lighthouse that is surrounded by actual Coast Guard housing! There was a sign that asked visitors to
please not bother the residents as they do work and live here! We didn’t get too close to this one either as
it was behind fencing.
On to Coquille Lighthouse, and then Cape
Blanco lighthouse. We hiked a bit to get
there but were able to go to the top. It wasn’t a very tall one as far as light
houses go but the Fresnel lens was still operational!! What a cool thing that was to stand right
next to that lens as it rotated around!
Lighthouses are so great in that if you are allowed to go up, you can
see forever!! IN ALL DIRECTIONS!
We drove on and then did an impromptu hike
that was gorgeous. We stopped right
after the Thomas Creek Bridge which is the tallest bridge in Oregon. There was a pullout that said “scenic view”
trail. We were just entering the trail
when someone stopped us and said the trail only went in about 20 feet and then
was too steep. Too steep, he actually
said to us! He didn’t have a clue that
we’d hiked Grouse Mountain just a few days ago. :)
Anyway, he was sort of right, but Andrew
noticed that there was a trail that zig zagged just a bit over to the left, so
we popped back out of the woods and down the parking lot a ways and went back
in. It zigged and zagged back and forth
but we got to go down and around and had the most amazing “up” view of the
bridge and also, after a little backtracking and a new direction, a most
excellent view of a bay with large rocks, and trees, and unspoiled beauty. We couldn’t walk all the way down, but what
we could do was worth each step. We
wished we could have found him and told him it was so worth the hike!!
We found one more lighthouse near
Brookings but it is now a private residence so we didn’t get too close. We did have to invade their driveway just a
bit to turn around. It just isn’t as
easy with the hitch on the back!
We drove through Klamath; the last time we
did this there was a mom whale and her little one stuck in the river. That was something to see. Later we found out that the mom had died but
the baby they could encourage to go back out to see and join some other
migrating whales. Just past Klamath we stopped to snap a selfie with Paul
Bunyan and Babe. They were still
there! Freshly painted by the looks of
them!
Now to find a campsite for the night. We didn’t book any except for July 5 at Half
Moon Bay as that one is hard to get into.
We drove into a couple that Google directed us to but they were not what
we were looking for. One was sort of by
an industrial area (yeah, we thought that was weird too!) and the other was
literally just off the road next to a hotel (another weird one that sounded
much better online!). So we kept on
driving and found another that said it was in a wooded area. This one was much better – we literally drove
in, checked in with the lovely older couple that owned two weiner dogs that
barked at me, rounded the turn and, wow! There were ginormous redwood stumps at
our campsite! They were bigger than our
truck, and most definitely bigger than our tent. Great site! There were showers and some
neighbors but not too many.
Great call to leave the others behind and
head to this one.
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