We have been touring the Scenic Oregon Coast Highway for the last week. When we started out, it was so foggy that we couldn't see very much, but after a couple of days, it cleared up and is sunny and in the 70's now. Beautiful weather and everyone comments on how unusual it is. We started in the north at Cannon Beach where we walked the beach looking for the haystack rocks. We toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory (very interesting to see the machinery cut huge 40 lb blocks of cheese and shrink wrap it). The coastline was beautiful here with rocks on the beaches, but nothing compared to the ruggedness of the central coast.
We have to take the driving slow because of the curves around the cliffs and the grades that we are climbing. It is the most beautiful sight ever!!! Just like all the pictures you see. There are lighthouses on the cliffs, pullovers along the road, and lots of shops in the small towns. (There is no sales tax in Oregon. They pay a state income tax but have no sales tax on anything. People from other states come to buy cars and motorhomes here---saves a lot of money. It is so amazing how cheap it seems when they don't add that sales tax.)
Newport has been my favorite so far. We stayed in an RV park on the marina under the bridge on the bay. Across the water from us was the historic bayfront with restaurants, shops, fish markets, etc just like Seattle and San Francisco but on a smaller scale. They have a huge rock structure in the bay--it is full of sea lions who bark a lot ! We heard them the first night--the next day we went looking for them. Had so much fun watching them. We spent the rest of the morning at Yaquina Head Natural Area. There are tidepools there where sea animals are exposed during low tide. We saw dozens of sea stars (starfish), sea anemones, purple sea urchins, mussels, and crabs. Harbor seals were resting there and their heads were bobbing in the water near the shore. More about the animals in another post. Then back to the bayfront for lunch. We ate clam chowder at Mo's, an Oregon institution since the 40's.
That afternoon we drove to Cape Perpetua--magnificent cliffs, lava flow rocks with sea caves and holes where the force of the waves would shoot up into the air. They call these spouting horns. We call them blow holes.
Another day we drove to Devil's Punchbowl (a huge rock cave where the waves had worn away the center) Cape Fowlweather ( a cliff with a lighthouse named because winds here can reach 100 MPH in the winter), and Rocky Creek scenic area. From the lookout on top of Cape Fowlweather, we spotted huge gray whales in the cove just below us!! We saw the blow first and then they would come out of the water. They were huge just not quite as large as the ones that we had touched in Mexico. So much fun to see all the animal life as we go along. If we had paid for a whale watching tour, we couldn't have seen them any better.
On our last morning here, we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium right on the bay. They had a touch tank where we could touch the starfish. So many varieties and they all feel different. Some are really soft. They had the usual sea lion, harbor seal , and sea otter exhibits. Also the shark exhibit where you walk through a tunnel and the shark and other fish swim all around you. The birds were great--puffins flying, diving, and grooming themselves. They seemed to be posing for cute pictures and would even look right at you.
