Windblown, wet, rocky crags
dominated most of the Oregon Coast we’ve been travelling through the past few
days.
On our first day we crossed the
border and followed the scenic 101, taking the detour to Sunset Bay State Park
and staying in a county park for the night.
We were talking to a local guy at
the playground and thanks to his great tip, took the kids down to the Sunset
Bay rock pools the next morning and had a really interesting ramble over the
rocks at low tide – finding anenomes, sea stars, hermit crabs and other cool
stuff exposed.
The next section of the drive,
from Coos Bay/North Bend northwards was dominated by massive coastal dune
systems.
Some of these were solidly covered
by forests. Others were exposed and completely devoid of anything but grasses
and yet others were crawling with ATVs enjoying the Memorial Day Weekend in recreational
areas set aside for their play.
We couldn’t believe some of the
set-ups these families have – their trailers are filled with enough vehicles
for every member of the family (even kids as young if not younger than ours). The
family that rides together stays together I guess!
There were also a huge number of
lakes and lagoons either side of the road and we camped beside one of these
lagoons (an ‘oxbow’ lake) in the Siltcoos Recreation Corridor.
The next morning, as we headed
further north, we avoided the Sea Lion Caves that we’d read were a bit over-touristed
and instead pulled into the Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint and
admired the vista across a small bay to the really gorgeous lighthouse.
We watched the seals swimming through
the waves below and sunning themselves on the exposed rocks.
Indy was using his binoculars (a
very thoughtful xmas gift from the Roddas) and offered a group of lady travellers
a look through them.
They peered through (probably just
to humour him) and exclaimed, “Oh, these are real. Oh LOOK! There ‘s the seals!”,
to which Indy replied, “Yeah, but don’t try my brothers. They’re toy ones.”
When we pulled in at the Cape
Perpetua Scenic Area Visitors Centre, we decided to find a site at the
campground (and did, right beside the river).
We were in luck with the tides and
went straight down to the beach to catch the high tide pounding up through thor’s
well, the devil’s churn and a natural sea geiser that looked really cool
shooting the ocean mist high into the air with each of the big crashing waves.
Nath ran up to the Cape Perpetua
Overlook for views along the coast before getting our fire started just as the
almost-constant drizzle started again.
The boys gorged themselves on the
salmonberries they had picked on the trail and at our campsite.
This state park is just one of several
along the shoreline we’ve seen so far in Oregon. In fact, there’s almost
continuous parks management where the land meets the sea.
I’m wondering if it’s perhaps
because so much of the Oregon coastline is dominated by state and forest parks
that it has retained such a real sense of isolated wilderness for the most
part.
The next morning, we kept
following the rugged, windswept coastline north to Newport. Here, we visited
the Hatfield Marine Science Center of the University of Oregon.
Indy’s favourite exhibit was a
wave tunnel that allowed him to construct buildings from Lego and then send waves down the tube (either regular, irregular
or Tsunami) to where his constructions stood.
Up until yesterday he’d been
talking about being a photographer but now there’s a lot of questions being
thrown at us about building materials. Maybe a construction engineer?
If there’s one thing we want for
the boys as much as their good health it’s that they’ll find a passion in life
and get the chance to follow it.
Indy has developed a REALLY
full-on obsession with Carbonara (yes, the sauce) which Nath has been making up
whenever we’ve got the ingredients. Indy grunts like a pig hunting truffles and
says “Thankyou Thankyou, you’re the BEST dad!” over and over as he eats it.
So we’ve tried to explain our
hopes for him this way.... “Indy, we hope that one day you love your work as
much as you love carbonara.”
