10/6 & 10/7/12–The Oregon Coast from Brookings to Gold Beach and Back

The afternoon on Saturday October 6th was sunny so we decided to take a drive north toward Gold Beach and stop at various ocean viewpoints.

Several other people had the same idea.

The seagulls were enjoying someone’s picnic lunch (or what was left of it).

Oregon has these stations set up at several sites along the coast.

Arch Rock with blue water looks like it would be off the coast of Mexico or someplace warmer.

We assumed that this was House Rock as it has the vague shape of a house at the top of the rock.

On Sunday, we drove to Gold Beach to have a look around.  We were glad to have gone to see some of the ocean access points on Saturday since it was quite foggy.  We crossed this bridge several times in the last couple of days.

Once we arrived at Gold Beach, we had plans to try the same restaurant that Bill and Diane had been to the other day.  Unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday.  So before finding another location for lunch, we took a loop drive up the Rogue River and back.  There were very few locations where we could actually see the river.  But at this point, there were people fishing out of a boat on one side.

And another person was on shore cleaning his salmon.

Driving down the river on the other side, we spotted this herd of elk.

The waves must be really strong in this area judging by the large amounts of driftwood on the shoreline.

The it was back to Brookings for our last evening there.

10/5/12–Winchester Bay to Brookings, OR

We left Winchester Bay on October 5th and headed to our next destination of the Brookings, Oregon Elks lodge.

It wasn’t a very good day for photos with all the bugs on the front window, but we passed by the sand dunes.

We crossed a few bridges during the day.

and saw a few dinosaurs.

We saw lots of boats out fishing…the salmon must be running.

We didn’t get a picture as we went through Gold Beach, but Ken saw our friends Bill and Diane at a local restaurant when Bill got out of his car and waved.  We honked and continued a short way to where we could get off the road in case they tried to follow us.  After waiting a few minutes, we continued on our way and we found out later Bill and Diane continued on their way back to their campground north of town.

We also saw the Pacific Ocean.  There are all sizes and shapes of rocks along the Oregon coast.

And we finally arrived at the Brookings Elks lodge which was to be our home for the next three nights.

10/3/12–Lincoln City to Winchester Bay

We left the Lincoln City Elks Wapiti campground late in the morning of 10/3/12 and continued our journey south along the Oregon coast.

Along the way there are several scenic turnouts, and this was one of our favorites.  The waves came crashing into the shoreline and there was a blow hole that would spout off if the waves were strong enough.  It was really interesting to watch.

This bridge went across that same area to another viewpoint, but we weren’t able to look back and see the spout from there.

The glare from the RV windows doesn’t add to this photo, but here we’re getting into the Oregon sand dunes area.  It’s a very popular area for ATV’s, dune buggies, and sand rails.

We arrived at our campsite for the next two nights in Winchester Bay.  We had a couple of colder overnight temperatures while here, but the daytime was beautiful and we boondocked in the Salmon Harbor Marina.

Later in the afternoon, we drove around the area to see the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

And here’s a view of the jetty at the Pacific Ocean and Winchester Bay.

It was another beautiful day in our travels!

10/2/12–A Day Trip to Depoe Bay, OR and Newport, OR

We took a day trip to Depoe Bay and Newport on Tuesday 10/2/12.

It was getting windy, and there was quite a bit of wave action on the ocean side.

In contrast, the bay seems very peaceful.

Back on the Pacific Ocean side the surf was looking rough.

We had a very good lunch at the Sea Hag in Depoe Bay then drove around a bit.  This custom Volvo had a very unique trunk ornament.

We continued to Newport as we wanted to find some dungeness crab for dinner.  We went to the seafood market/café in port area of town.  When we first walked in this cashier had her mouth full of food and was telling us how good it was.  It was a taco filled with pico de gallo and fresh tuna.  We purchased a couple of dungeness crab and some of the fresh bay shrimp to take home for some fresh seafood meals at home.

This is the cashier who cleaned our crab for us and put it on ice.  Before leaving with our purchase, we were given one of the tuna tacos to try for ourselves along with some guacamole to go with it.  Although it wasn’t that long since we had our lunch, we managed to share it and it was excellent!

The harbor in Newport always seems to be a favorite hangout for the local sea lions.  Some were bathing on the rock jetty.

Others seemed to prefer the dock.

Before heading back to the RV in Lincoln City, we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things.

10/1/12– Evergreen Air Museum–McMinnville, OR

On Monday, October 1st we drove to McMinnville, OR to visit the Evergreen Air Museum which is the home of Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose. 

It takes up a large portion of this building.

This photo shows just a small portion of the Spruce Goose.

The museum has several other airplanes on display inside the building as well as outside.

This shows one side of the Spruce Goose which has four engines on each wing.

Ken’s looking at one of the exhibits.

Some information about the early years of the Spruce Goose.

Control panels take up much of the room in the flight deck.

Ken is sitting in the pilot’s seat.

One of the outside exhibits.

This 747 was converted to be a water slide park at the facility.

As we returned to Lincoln City, we saw this truck in a tree.

Once we got back to Lincoln City, we went to the boondocking area at the casino where Ken and Joanne were parked for the night.  We visited with them for a couple of hours before returning to our RV for the night.

9/30/12–Hammond, OR to Lincoln City, OR

We headed further south along the Oregon coast on 9/30/12.  There were several wonderful coastal views and I didn’t get photos of many of them.  But we did stop for lunch at a pullout north of Tillamook.  Obviously the salmon are running judging by the numerous boats in the bay.

We stayed in this turnout for about an hour while eating our lunch and just watching to see what was going on.  We never did see anyone bring in a fish, and we eventually headed south to our destination of the Wapiti Campground for the Lincoln City Elks lodge.

9/29/12–Lewis & Clark at Fort Clatsop and The Salt Works in Seaside

We once again toured Fort Clatsop, the winter home for Lewis and Clark in their journeys over 200 years ago.

After spending time touring Fort Clatsop, we drove south to Seaside for a lunch stop and to view the Salt Works site where a number of men from the Corps of Discovery camped for a few months to boil down ocean water to make more salt necessary for preserving meat and fish…a major portion of their diet.