OREGON COAST

We hit the road again! This time for a "mini" road trip to the Oregon Coast traveling 1248 miles over four days - short for us. 😃 The weather in both California & Oregon had been ferocious for weeks with torrential rains & winds in the lower altitudes & heavy snows in the mountains but luckily there were just a few showers during our getaway.

Mt. Shasta in Northern California was a breathtaking sight! The 14,179 foot mountain was completely blanketed in snow.

This Steller's Jay was determined to help us eat our lunch when we stopped for a picnic on the shore of Lake Shasta. He did stand still long enough for us to snap some pretty good photos.

Our goal on day one was simply to reach Grants Pass, Oregon, & get a good night's sleep. Along the way we made an unscheduled stop at Crater Rock Museum in Central Point, Oregon. They had a huge collection of rocks, shells, dinosaur artifacts & thousands of other interesting items such as this miniature carousel made of rocks & gems.

The primary focus of our road trip was Oregon lighthouses & bridges. Lou did his usual research learning that there are eleven arch bridges, all constructed in the 1930s, & designed by American bridge engineer, Conde McCullough, along Oregon's coastal highway. Over the course of two days we saw seven lighthouses & ten bridges.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse north of Newport was the only lighthouse open for tours & climbing since we are in the middle of winter. It has 114 steps & a first order Fresnel lens that is still in operation. The day was foggy & overcast putting a bit of a damper on our photos but the following day made up for it with beautiful skies.

The Rocky Creek Bridge, also known as the Ben Jones Bridge, was a little tricky to find but we would not be deterred. The others were all on Highway 101 but this one was off the main road. Lou's notes & a bit of deducing led us to the bridge.

The Depoe Bay Bridge was simple to locate but figuring out how to get a photo of many of these bridges was often a bit more difficult. This one had a pedestrian walkway under the bridge that made it possible to get this shot.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is only a few miles from the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. According to the docent, Yaquina Head was built too close to Yaquina Bay by mistake causing it to be closed after about 30 years since two lighthouses in such close proximity weren't needed. 

The Yaquina Bay Bridge is 3223 feet long with a soaring steel arch flanked by two steel deck arches & a "jewelry chain" of five concrete deck arches.

One of the perks of driving around searching for views of the bridges was stumbling onto old harbors, villages & other interesting photo ops. While hunting around Newport for an unobstructed view of the Yaquina Bay Bridge, we came across a ton of sea lions. They were quite the attraction as lots of people were milling about taking pictures.

. 

Every available space was taken up by literally thousands of sea lions! These were just below a walkway but out in the harbor was a huge rock (above) completely covered by sea lions. They could be heard a block away barking loudly.

I discovered that they would be sound asleep then one would suddenly bite at another. They would start yelling, fighting & wreaking havoc with each other. Ten seconds later they were all sleeping next to & on top of each other again.

Our second night was spent at the SeaQuest Inn Bed & Breakfast between Yachats & Florence, Oregon. This B & B is literally right on the ocean with beautiful views, lovely rooms with jacuzzi tubs & a scrumptious breakfast cooked by our innkeeper, Sherwood.

The back of the SeaQuest Inn - the waves were crashing about 20 feet behind me when I took this photo.  The sliding door second from the right on the lower floor was our room, The Dominica, complete with an oceanview large jacuzzi tub.

The front of the inn with its lagoon. The facility was built as a bed & breakfast about 35 years ago. It was a delightful place to stay & we highly recommend it.

The Great Room - it has music, games, reading material, chairs & afghans to watch the waves plus wine, cheese & crackers in the late afternoon. There are seven guest rooms but only two were occupied during our stay. It was nice to have the place almost to ourselves. Dave & Christine were the other couple who we enjoyed meeting & talking with for quite a while.

After bidding farewell to Sherwood, Dave & Christine we made our way south for a full day of lighthouse & bridge exploring.

Big Creek Bridge is one of the simple arch bridges designed by Conde McCullough.

Heceta Head Lighthouse from the overlook across the cove. We walked about 1/2 mile uphill to visit this lighthouse. It is not available to climb until inspectors clear it as being safe after a five year restoration project.

Umpqua Lighthouse sits above the entrance to Winchester Bay near Reedsport.

This mile long span is the McCullough Memorial Bridge built in 1936 to cross Coos Bay. Many of these bridge & lighthouse photos were taken from quite a distance away. Thank goodness for cameras with big optical zoom lenses!

Cape Arago Lighthouse on Sunset Bay was the most difficult to find. Fortunately, our GPS had it listed as an attraction & led us to the overlook. The lighthouse is not open to the public & is on Native American land.

The Coquille River Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1939 due to improvements to the river channel & advanced navigational aids. Restoration was begun in 2007 & is ongoing.

Our daylight was running out as we "raced" to Cape Blanco Lighthouse located six miles off of Highway 101. Dusk was descending making the light beam more visible at our final lighthouse. This one was also closed for the winter of which  we were aware.

Along the way there were ample opportunities to take some wonderful photos of the shoreline, buildings & sand dunes. Our first full day was overcast & cold but day two turned out sunny & beautiful for which we were thankful since it was the middle of winter!

Every now & then you get lucky & snap a shot that needs no tweaking or enhancement. This was taken in the late morning even though it looks like sunset. The clouds & water patterns made a great subject.

Rocks & driftwood are abundant all along the Oregon coast.

I love reflections! These buildings along the Old Harbor in Florence, Oregon, made for a lovely photo taken from a pier across the water.

The pier in Florence we walked out on to snap the reflection photo above (the buildings were to the left). When I turned around to walk back I had to snap another beautiful shot.

The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area features miles & miles of giant sand dunes. 

Another area of the Oregon Dunes glowing in the afternoon sun.

This was my second trip along Oregon's shoreline, the first being about 25 years ago. It has some gorgeous scenery with rugged landscapes & huge rocks but I guess I'm just a California girl through & through because it still can't hold a candle to our majestic Northern California coastline.....IMHO.