Oregon: Dunes, Lakes, Cheese and More

The 101 through Oregon is a beautiful drive.  We started at the bottom of the state and slowly made our way towards the top, following this coastal gem the entire way...

There are so many beautiful old bridges along this highway, I just love the detail that went into their construction.  Not only functional, but beautiful...sadly this attention to detail seems to be a lost art in our modern world...

We stopped at every lake along the way that looked like it might be a nice place to stay for a while (for future reference).  One such lake was in the town of Lakeside...

Check out the welcome banner coming into town:

Old clothes strung above the street spelling out "Welcome to Lakeside",  haha!  Unique for sure, I like it :).  Different is good.

Speaking of different...Oregon state law, no self-serve gas.  An attendant pumps it for you while you sit in the car and wait.  With all the rain the PNW gets, I think I could come to really appreciate that particular law (strange as it is).

The Oregon Dunes, another west coast beauty...

We stayed for a while, admiring the windswept landscape.  I LOVE the wind, especially when it is laced with salt.  I seriously just took a deeeep breath just thinking about it, HA!  Funny. 

Another pretty lake...

...followed by another pretty bridge...

Oregon is very pretty :).

We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves.  Such noisy critters, if the smell doesn't tip you off that they're near, the incessant barking will :)...

The Heceta Head Lighthouse and the Devils Elbow.  So beautiful and so dangerous...

...aaaaand another pretty bridge :)...

We slowly made our way up to Tillamook, a tour of the famous cheese factory had been on our list for sometime...

It was just ok.  Maybe because we had already toured the Cabot facilities in Vermont it wasn't really anything new.  I don't know.  We did enjoy it, it just wasn't "wow".  Anyway, go see it for yourself and decide.  Their cheese sure is good and their ice cream is even better (the Wild Mountain Blackberry is especially yum).

Crescent City, California

It didn't take the kids and I long to get ourselves together and get back on the road.  One quick stop for some fancy coffee drinks (travel day tradition...any excuse for some caffeine, ya'll!) and we set our sights south...back to California!  Say whaaaat???  California?  After all that talk about seeing Oregon?  Hahaha...yes, California was calling to us that morning.  So we went :)!  Why not, right?  Right.  So anyway, away we went all caffeined up down to Crescent City, California.

Just so ya'll know, we weren't just aimlessly going around in circles.  We did actually have a destination in mind in Crescent City.  I have mentioned before that we really enjoy the National Parks Junior Ranger program and the kids have collected quite a few badges from our travels around the country (around 200 at last count!).  We spent a good chunk of time the day before in Redwood National Park, but the visitor center in the forest was closed for the season.  With Dan and Trevor off on the Chetco for the day, the 4 younger kids and I decided to zip back down into California for some junior rangering at the Crescent City Redwood NP visitor center.

The visitor center was fun, the rangers all friendly and cheerful.  We learned even more about the park and the history of the area...banana slugs, fire activated pine cones, and the gigantic earthquake/tsunami of 1964...

that blue line just above the boys heads...tsunami high water mark {{shiver}}

Only a block or so away was a really nice waterfront park.  We headed over there next to check out the Crescent Harbor...

From there, we noticed a lighthouse in the distance.  I just love lighthouses, so of course we had to get a closer look :)...

We got close and then realized that it sits on an island!  How neat is that??!  There is a road leading to it and it is actually open to the public...but only at low tide :).  We would just have to be content with viewing from afar on this day (some interesting history about the light here)...

With our path to the light cut off, we turned back around towards the harbor.  There was a fishing pier that grabbed our attention so we headed thatta way next.  What we saw over there...WHOA.  There was a real strange fella out there communing with his bird brethren.  Ahem.  Yeah, for real...

Bird Man standing near his camper...

We watched as a car drove by... not really fast, but fast enough that it scared away all "his birds" and he completely FREAKED out.  Screaming, wailing, all manner of carrying on.  We eased on by real slow when he wasn't looking (eeek!)...

...that poor woman looked too scared to move ;)

Before leaving the harbor, we made one last stop over on the far side.  There is a little restaurant that looks out over the water (and the seals swimming, boats coming and going) so we decided to grab some lunch.  The food was just ok, the view however was awesome...so overall it was a good lunch.  Not great, but good. 

When we were in the vc, the ranger told us about a place we could go to maybe see some elk.  Elk at the beach?  Say no more :)!  Even though it would take us further south into California (the opposite direction we were supposed to be going), we just had to go check it out...

...aaaannnnd boom.  Fog bank. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the fog and mist.  It's a part of what makes the west coast what it is (and oh so pretty).  Fog is nice when you are walking on the beach or just hanging out, but not for spotting elk (or anything else).  So...we went just a bit farther and decided to turn around and head back.  We were driving along and out of the corner of my eye...something brown!  Screech!  Baaaaack up...it was a field full of elk!  Well how about that :)...

West...

Out of the 50 states, we had visited 46...the final four being Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska.  This road trip would take us to two of those...Washington and Oregon...bringing our total visited to 48!  Woohoo!  I love the traveling lifestyle :)...

I mentioned before that we were headed for the Pacific Coast...Brookings, Oregon, to be exact.  We had formed a rough plan to start at the bottom of the state and head north(ish) to the top then into Washington.  But first, we had to get there...from North Dakota, across Montana with a peek into Glacier NP, through Idaho...first north to within shouting distance of the Canadian border...then back south, cutting across the corner of Washington, following the Columbia River west through Oregon...then the Willamette Valley south...before finally turning west again, towards the ocean.  My favorite.

To get from Grants Pass, Oregon, to Brookings, Oregon, you have to dip down into California.  There is no straight west road.  We have visited California numerous times, but never have we seen a state welcome sign quite like this one...

HAHA!  I think it's my favorite of all :)!  Funny.  Anyway, we stopped to get a picture of the sign and while I was doing that, my husband heard some turkeys chattering in the trees.  He chattered back at them to see if they'd come out and THEY DID!...

I am SO glad that I wasn't standing outside the car when these things came up.  Turkeys can be mean! 

Well, they strutted right up to our car...then circled around and around.  Chattering and looking for their turkey friend that had called to them ;).  I have never seen anything like that! 

I took a few more pictures of the sign, the turkeys had walked away from the car, and it was time to go.  Uh oh...

super blurry, but that EXPRESSION!  HA!

Hahahahaaaaa!  A wild turkey chase ensued!  Welcome to California, ya'll ;)...

and yes, I am easily amused...just in case you hadn't already figured that out.

Ok, so crazy birds behind us (we hope!) we continued on our way towards the ocean.  We were following the Redwood Highway and it proved true to its name.  Redwoods, indeed...

There is something so completely magical about a Redwood forest...

the Smith River

It doesn't matter how many times I find myself among these giants, each and every time I am stopped in my tracks.  Head thrown back, mouth agape in awe...and I'm not the only one :)...

We slooooowly made our way through the beautiful woods and on towards our destination:  the ocean.