The Oregon coast: better than Disneyland!

Sea palms (Postelsia) or as I dubbed them, miniature Lorax trees at Rocky Creek State Park, north of Newport. Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Holtcamp 

I took Sam to the Central Oregon coast two weekends ago (and this past one, we went to Astoria, Cannon Beach and the north Oregon coast, but those pics will have to wait until another day- maybe tomorrow!) The Devil's Punchbowl shown in this photo can be seen in the tiny town of Otter Rock. At high tide, the ocean splashes up through the hole in the rock. We went at high tide, but it didn't splash so much. Maybe it was a lowish high tide. Sam wondered why the water inside the "bowl" is a different color than the ocean. I think it's probably an effect of the depth but I'm not sure.

Another view of the Devil's punchbowl and the gorgeous rocky coastline. We arrived on Friday night, on a cloudy, drizzly (aka typical) day on the Oregon coast (I took these punchbowl photos on Sunday, actually) and it was pretty cloudy all Saturday too. We were the guests of Dick Cutler and the Inn at Otter Crest, an awesome condo and hotel/resort in Otter Rock, Oregon where I'd stayed on my last year's trip also. I didn't get a photo but it has the coolest "tram" that takes you from the parking lot at the bottom of the hill to the lodge units which are placed up a steep mountainside. We were at the very top! It is sort of like an elevator, and it went pretty slow, but it was kind of a fun experience. Especially when a group of kids were in it with us, and we were going downhill, and one of the young ones said, "is this moved by people power?" Out of the mouths of babes! Ha!

The first order of the day was to see the Japanese dock that washed all the way across the sea to Newport! It has become a popular tourist attraction! See it soon, though, as they are about to cut it up and haul it off. It originally had seaweed growing all over it and other images on the web show it in all its glory, but they "torched" it to kill everything, after collecting samples for scientists to study. They thought an oceanic journey would kill everything but no... at least three species are potentially invasive, so they were concerned about economic and ecological repercussions. I also attended a meeting of the two U.S. Oregon Congressmen and representatives of various boating and fishing industries, to discuss what to do about possible repercussions if ships at sea run into some big debris like this floating dock.

People clearly do not wish to obey the No Trespassing signs. :)

Just below the Inn at Otter Crest, there's a nice beach where a lot of people go and have campfires.  I love campfires so much, and only wish we could have had one. Nothing is more awesome than hanging out by a campfire with friends or a loved one.  People also look for agates which are common on the Oregon coast especially in this area. We looked for agates but I couldn't remember what they looked like in the unpolished form and I was confusing them for geodes in my mind.

So he was trying to crack them open...

Another view of Otter Crest beach

A nice bench!

Later, we stopped by Rocky Creek State Park to do some tide pool explorin'. When I got there, I realized I had been here before, but only as far as this. I had taken some photos on last year's visit.

Sam found this ginormous skunk cabbage leaf on the trail down to the tide pool area. Of course, he has to hide his face behind it... He so loves his photo taken...

A view of the vista at Rocky Creek State Park.

Then we climbed down onto the rocky shore below. 

Sam walking on the volcanic rock. It reminded me of the Galapagos Islands. Minus the iguanas. And Sally Lightfoot crabs.

And then... I spotted them. What the heck? Miniature Lorax trees growing on the rocks?

I got closer, and marveled at the awesomeness that is the mini-Lorax tree seaweed. OK really they are called sea palms, or scientific name Postelsia. And they're edible and very nutritious! While Sam explored, I sat and watched and photographed the waves splashing the Lorax trees, er, sea palms, for a long time. I had such a sense of peace.

A cool shot of the ocean splashing on the rocks and the sea palms.

They are just the coolest things ever!

A fun shot of a wave coming in. It was cool how the color in the wave is more green than the deeper blue/aqua of the rest. Kind of similar to how the color inside of the devil's punchbowl was more green. It must have something to do with the reflection of the sun and the depth. See, I'm solving the conundrum using my own photographs!

 

I had this tiny daisy in my hair, as I am inclined to do, and it fell into the water, and I thought it looked kinda cool. There were also mussels all over the place.

Later that day, we stopped by the Whale Museum, just opened in Depoe Bay, and since there was a second low tide later in the day, we decided to go tide pooling at Boiler Bay at the recommendation of the people at the Whale Museum. It wasn't a super low tide, and we had to totally bush-whack through the freakin jungle to get to the rocky ledge, but it was cool once we did. Then on the way back up we discovered an easier path up the bank.

It's so named because of a schooner that ran aground and then the oil tanks exploded. Some of the metal is still present in the bay, including one of the engine oilers - seen here - that is visible at low tide.
 

I just love me some starfish.

More starfish!

This is such a funny photo of Sam throwing a piece of seaweed at me!

Another view of Boiler Bay

Sam found this very bizarre hollow tube of some sort of seaweed. Reminds me of the weird horn-like hair growths on some of the Star Wars characters.

I wanted to add a few images I took with my phone. We ate at Oceanbleu at Gino's in the historic Bayfront area of Newport, on the recommendation of Yelp, and it didn't disappoint. Both Sam and I agreed it was the best seafood we had on our entire Oregon trip. I decided that even though I've been vegetarian since the beginning of the year, I would have some of the locally caught wild salmon while here. It didn't disappoint! Their clam chowder was delicious too.

I took a similar photo of this shop last year but love this one because you can see Sam and my reflection in the image. Ha ha! The shop was open this time and I got some pretty funny gifts in here...

I took Sam to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, and we saw some pretty cool tide pools but it wasn't that low of a low tide this day - not anything like when I went last year. Anyway these are the cobbles on the cobblestone beach that I think are so cool. I didn't take pics with my good camera because it was super drizzly.

We also went to the Sea Lion caves near Florence, where we not only saw Steller sea lions but we bought and then consumed enormous quantities of fudge.

Oregon Coast Adventures: sandboarding, marine wildlife and heli rides

I honestly can't imagine how we fit so much into one day, but Thursday was more full of adventure than any other - a great day! In the morning we explored some tidepools at Strawberry Hill Wayside, which is part of Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint. I'd have to say that compared to the other two spots - which were truly amazing - it was not as good for exploring. The tide was slightly higher so maybe some of the best tidepools were not exposed, and the rocks were incredibly slippery. In the other two locales, there were more spots to put your feet that did not have seaweed covering them. You had to be very careful not to slip here. And it seemed like the tidepools themselves were not as full of critters. But it is still always fun to explore and shoot photos. This is a purple ochre seastar. A shot of the landscape at Strawberry Hill. Oh and I randomly ran into some graduate students from Jane Lubchenco's lab at Oregon State! As head of NOAA she surely isn't actively researching right now but she still has a lab doing research apparently! I remember reading about her ecology/tidepool research in my massive Biology 101 textbook so I have great respect for the fact that she is now the head of NOAA is pretty cool to me. I actually met her at the last SEJ conference in Missoula (speaking of which - I'm excited to sign up for the SEJ conference in Miami this coming October!!)
The orange-colored seastars are so bright you can easily spot them across the way as the waves crash on the rocks.
But look up close, and what do you see? This starfish has a smiley face on it!! I swear I did not Photoshop that in either!
I just love starfish!
Starfish lovers.
After exploring the tidepools, we went to Sea Lion Caves, a private enterprise north of Florence on the Central Oregon coast that has a great view of an overlook where hundreds of Stellar sea lions haul out to mate and have babies every year. Birthing will happen next month, so any of the younguns you see in the pics below are yearlings. These are a different species than the California sea lions that we saw on the dock in Newport. You can see how gigantic the Stellar males are - they are massive! Stellars are quite a bit larger than California sea lions, and the folks at Sea Lion Caves told us that they generally do not haul out together. However an interesting sidenote is that when all the sea lions disappeared from the San Francisco Pier 39 in Nov 2009 (which I wrote about for Animal Planet), they showed up in Oregon, right in this same area! They can't be 100% sure they were the same animals since they are not tagged or anything, but it seems likely. I also blogged about their return in May 2010 for Animal Planet.
A shot of the sea lions from a perspective of many feet above.
Now I swear I didn't Photoshop this either but what the heck is on that one sea lion but ... the mark of the beast! The number 666 is clearly etched on its skin - the antichrist sea lion! I'm wondering if a biologist marked it for research purposes. I have to show this to the Sea Lion Caves folks - maybe they will know. It could have been an injury because another sea lion we saw had fresh wounds on its fur, but I didn't get a photo of that one.
A big daddy sea lion!
While watching the sea lions with binoculars, we saw some gray whales passing by!Another shot of the gray whales.
One of the best ways to spot whales is by their blow, and then if you watch the ocean for a while they will surface.
The Heceta Head Lighthouse is also visible from Sea Lion Caves. It's apparently one of the most photographed in the nation because of the great view on roadsides and other spots like here!
Another view, closer in.
Another feature of Sea Lion Caves is that they have an elevator that takes you down some 200 feet below to the world's "biggest sea cave" - and thgough sea lions normally don't hang out there this time of year there were some. All my pics were out of focus but I wanted to show this view of the cave - minus any sea lions. Underground they have some interpretive displays as well. Out of one of the cavern walls, you could see this nesting pair of pigeon guillemots.
Next we went to the Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast for a tour and a boxed lunch from Ona Restaurant (which was fantastic - they made me a baba ganoush veggie sandwich- OMG it was so good!), which is owned by the same people (on a sidenote - I'm impressed by how many restaurants specialize in "farm to fork" and local and/or sustainable meat and seafood). The B&B is in the home of the former lighthouse keepers (not in the lighthouse itself) but it's a short walk to the actual lighthouse. Apparently the B&B is "haunted"...
While there I ate my lunch on a bench overlooking this beautiful view... with a bird perched in the treetop. NEXT we went on another adventure - sandboarding lessons. It was SO much fun! I didn't even know sandboarding existed! I had so much fun. We got 30-minute lessons from 2 sandboarding champs, Gabriel and Joey, who work at Sandmaster Park in Florence, which was started by Lon Beale who was a pioneer of the sport in the 1970s and helped create the sand boards, as well as Dune Riders International - a governing body of the sport. They created a park dedicated to sandboarding, and rent boards and offer lessons. We just went on the bunny slope! Check out the cool video of people sandboarding. But I did fall once!
Cruising down the sand hill - woohoo!
We each got a dune buggy ride too.This is Pat and Eileen. When it was my turn, I got a face full of sand when the driver turned into a bank that he didn't quite make it up! I found sand all over me for days...
I rode with Rebecah - doesn't she look like she is having a blast! This one was definitely milder than the 390-foot drop we would do the next day at Sandland Adventure Park! I didn't get any photos because it's a freaking wild ride and they recommend you not take anything along.
This is an accidental photo I took with my phone that turned out pretty cool. Hang ten!
This is one of the instructors, Joey.
And as if we hadn't already squeezed in enough adventure for one day, we next went on a helicopter ride over the coast with Apex Helicopters, which just moved to Florence from Bozeman, Montana. They will no doing sunset and other coastal tours as well as flight training.
And last, we went back to our rooms at the Driftwood Shores Resort, where we ate at the Surfside restaurant and then I shot these photos of the sunset as well as those I posted yesterday. Of all the places, this was not my favorite in terms of the rooms but then again we didn't have as large of rooms as in the other resorts. The rooms were a bit older, but they have done some upgrades to make the place family friendly like a waterpark-like play area for the kids near the indoor pool and a huge hot tub that seats 10 or 12 people. I think in terms of views, I prefer the rockier shoreline of the spots further north; however, I really loved the way the photographs turned out with the light reflecting in the wet sand on the long, flat beach. The manager Martin - who is from Great Britain - was truly delightful! He ate dinner with us and was just a really interesting and nice guy. He told us how his wife wouldn't let him get a motorcycle so instead he got a "scooter." Only it goes 110 miles/hour... At least that is how fast he has gone on it. :)
Driftwood on the beach in Florence outside of the Driftwood Shores hotel.
Pat, Eileen and me on the roadside at one of the roadside pullouts we stopped at for photos.