To the Oregon Coast!

After Easter dinner we drove out to the Oregon Coast to start our little vacation. Our destination was Newport, but we did a quick stop at Cape Foulweather for our senses to rejoice in the coastal experience.

Monday, we started our day with sun and a low tide, so we tried out Ona Beach, just south of Newport. We had not been here before, but a geology friend of mine told me this was a good place to find rocks. And we did. There were fossils everywhere. This little outcrop was full of shells:

While Magnus and Gideon had fun in the sand, Dana went to explore the odd straight line rock outcrops.

Many had tide pools in them. And Dana found these little sea gooseberries, a type of jellyfish.

More fossils, the black one is petrified wood with worm holes through it.

Ona Beach had lots of cool things to explore.

Along with several fossils, some petrified wood, we found rocks with holes in them. Ruth really liked this big rock that looked like the moon, so Dana figured he would take it home with him, except it weighed about 90 lbs. Being about a mile from the car, it was too heavy to carry, so Dana fashioned a sleigh from some drift wood, and then used a stroller to get it up the path to the car. Now it is part of our rock garden.

From Ona Beach we headed further south to Cape Perpetua, one of Dana’s favorite coastal stops. This time we headed up to the top of the cape to see the view. It is pretty cool to see down to Devil’s Churn, Cook’s Chasm, and Thor’s Well.

There is even this neat little “castle” to stand in.

The clouds were really come in by this point, so we went down to Darlingtonia State Wayside to see the cobra lilies in bloom. The first time we went was in the Fall, so we thought it would be fun to see the carnivorous plant’s flowers. They are a bit of an oddity, in that no one knows what pollinates these flowers every year. And they are pretty bizarre looking inside (these pictures are for you, Rosanne).

They share the bog they are in with skunk cabbage, which was also in bloom, and being pollinated by little beetles.

Back north to Cape Perpetua at high tide to see the Sea Horn. The rain was just coming down in buckets. The stormy conditions plus a higher than normal tide made it so the Sea Horn went off every few waves.

I got as close as I dared to Thor’s Well. The Ocean seemed a bit angry and the waves were impressive. Those big waves and the pouring rain got me pretty wet.

But The bubbling well was worth it.

Back safe at the hotel we took the boys swimming. Magnus was a bit scared. Gideon really liked it.