“To the Oregon Coast!” in continuum

Waking up with the ocean is a beautiful thing. The previous night’s storm cleared the sky up a lot. And when we looked out our balcony there were several vultures circling at eye level. The storm had brought in something for them to eat far below us. 

Right near the hotel was this sculpture of a whale skeleton. Here is Magnus in the whale’s tummy.

Our first stop was a beach in Lincoln City. Dana had read about a festival they do throughout the winter months for beach combers, giving them a chance to randomly find a glass float on the beach, which local artisans hide. We thought we would try our luck. We did not find any, but Magnus did find a small stick that he still has and calls his “best friend forever,” or “Marshmallow Man” for short.

A storm heading up the coast eventually made us head back to the car. But not before we saw all these seals out on the end of the sand spit.

We found out when we got home those seals really like this spot. You can even see them in Google Earth, at the north end of the spit just to the south of Lincoln City, OR.

The beach was rainy, so we headed up into the mountains to see a waterfall. It was actually sunny up there. Our destination was Drift Creek Falls, a three mile round trip, which Magnus did with out being carried. Yay!

The forest the trail wound through was gorgeous, we even found a little newt on the path.

At the end is a 250 ft. long suspension bridge, which looks down into the canyon with the falls pouring in from a side creek.

A few years ago the front face of the cliff gave way and spilled into the canyon. It used to look a lot different. Dana and Magnus hiked the rest of the way down to creek level. See if you can spot Ruth and Gideon on the bridge.

Here are some random shots form the trail back, including a funny tree root climbing over an old stump.

One last stop at the ‘D’ River (the world’s shortest) to see more storm clouds.

On the way home we made a quick stop at the Glacial Erratic, a rock carried here from Montana and deposited in a field by an iceberg during the Missoula Floods at the end of the last Ice Age. Pretty cool. Dana made the short walk while everyone rested in the car.

That ended our Oregon Coast Explorations, this time…