Monday - September 13
Today was another banner day on the ocean! When we decided to go riding tomorrow, we made a good choice. The wind was howling as we took off to drive north along the coast to see what we missed between Cannon Beach and Florence when we went out to I-5 on Saturday instead of beating the trailer to death on Hwy 101. It seemed to both of us that there was a whole lot more beach when we were here in 1984. The ocean currents are changing the way the beach used to be, we know that, but there are also a whole lot more homes it seems. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the picturesque drive. Newport was as far north as we went. Boy, has that place grown! Goodness! It wasn't much last time through. Time and progress does that to the little towns, though, doesn't it? We grabbed a Subway sandwich for drunch and turned back south..
Our first stop was the Visitors' Center at Cape Perpetua. Geri read on the board that there had been Gray whale sightings every day for the past week. How exciting would that be? Asking the interp at the center about the sightings didn't provide much info. She said "they" had seen them on the trail at the top of the cape so up the road we went. Memories came flooding back to Geri on that road.
Back in the late mid-50s sometime, Geri's family and several of our friends were camping in trailers along the coast. She remembered a hill that we went up and seemed to recall that this was the hill! What is now a two-lane, asphalt road was then little more than one-lane dirt logging road. As memory serves, we were someplace up on the hill when someone called UNCLE, and Geri's dad turned not only our trailer around but the others, as well ... in the fog ... no guardrails ... huge trees on either side ... and a cliff ... on a narrow road ... with Dad being the only one who had an inclination of what the hell he was doing. Dad was a bit of a daredevil and loved exploring. Surely he thought this wouldn't be a big deal, but it turned into a big deal. We all made it back down safe and sound, and that memory is forever etched in Geri's brain as a fun adventure with family and friends. Well, it wasn't fun at the time, but those things are always fun in hindsight. LOL
Anyway, we drove up to the lookout at the top of the cape and saw a beautiful landscape below us but no whales. Darn!
In the center right of this picture is a blow hole for Cook's Chasm as seen from the top of Cape Perpetua. What's interesting is, notice the way the trees are all growing away from the wind. What a tortured life the vegetation lives at the edge of the ocean.
Back down the hill, out onto 101 southbound again and our luck changed! Rounding the corner at Brays Point, Bruce saw it first. Was that ... ? Nah, couldn't be. But wait! There it is again! That's a spout from a flippin' whale! Yyyyeeeaaa! We pulled over, whipped out the binocs (Geri was pissed that we hadn't taken our scopes) and we proceeded to watch at least two Gray whales feeding or rubbing or something in the same spot over and over and over for about 20 minutes. How cool is that?! The only way we knew or suspected they are Grays was 'cause that what everyone says they were. ;=) They would surface, take a couple of breaths and down they went for a few minutes. One was huge! We learned that not all whales are transients. These were probably locals who stay here for most of the year. They feed on some kind of shrimp found in kelp beds and will hang out feeding in the same area for several hours. This was definitely the highlight to our day! Whales! So close into shore that we could see them with our naked eye. Amazing!
Cruising along, another picture Geri wanted was of the Heceta Head lighthouse. We found a perfect pullout for that shot. The slightest bit of haze or fog had started rolling in.
We were also treated to a herd of California sea lions laying below on the rocks just north of the Sea Lion Caves exhibit. We have been down into the cave on numerous occasions and decided to let that opportunity pass this trip.
There was no more excitement on our way back to the trailer. Sculpted dunes, blue water and white cresting waves, sea gulls everywhere, Turkey vultures soaring overhead, a few white clouds in the sky and a bit of fog here and there as the evening set in. What a glorious drive and relaxing day!
