Oregon Coast Day 1: the rainy one

We began our Oregon Coast weekend by driving through Astoria and continuing south to Netarts (west of Tillamook). Our first stop was Fort Clatsop, the winter quarters for the Lewis and Clark expedition when they reached the Pacific. The weather was a bit damp, but that didn’t keep us from having fun. Magnus really enjoyed exploring the fort and its rooms.

We took the short hike down to the canoe launch site. Part of the trail is on a boardwalk, so I told Magnus about the “Under the Boardwalk” song. He loved it and continued to sing it for much of the hike.

Next we visited the wreck of the Peter Iredale. This time the tide was in. Also a lot of the wreckage was under the sand again.

In Seaside we found the Salt Works, where Lewis and Clark obtained enough salt for the return journey by boiling seawater for 5 weeks straight. This replica of the oven stands where the original did.

Ecola Point had a bit of a grey view, but it was still awesome.

The fog make this look a bit eerie.

We then made it to the beach house in Netarts for the night and Anton met us there. More coast adventures to come…

Camping at Lake Takhlakh

Lake Takhlakh was a camping trip we planned to do with our friend Brian. We planned a few weeks in advance, hoping the weather would be good. It was pretty good. It did rain a lot at night, but we stayed dry. And the skies were patchy clouds, giving a neat effect on Mt. Adams.

Lake Takhlakh is really beautiful and the campground is nice. It is also nice to see the reflection of Mt. Adams on the water.

 

Hanging out by the fire. Brian made Magnus look a little like a Borg.

 

Dana woke up to catch the sunrise:

We all took the morning pretty slow. Dana swam a bit and caught a crawdad, which he and Magnus ate…yummy.

After packing up, we stopped by Big Spring Creek Falls. It was amazing, three tiers of mossy beauty.

We planned to hike a place called Bird Creek Meadows. The weather appeared okay, so we headed up. We stopped to look at Bird Creek Falls. I like this group shot.

The hike was going well, until a cloud floated in and made the visibility low.

(pretty meadows)

We had a quick glimpse of the bottom of some glaciers and Hellroaring Falls. This view should have been much more of Mt. Adams. The rain soon followed and it poured, cutting our hike short.

We ate some lunch by Bird Lake. We still had a fun time. Here is also a shot of some of the road we drove up on. It was very bumpy.

Lookout Huckleberries

August was berry picking time in the mountains and forest of the Great Northwest. We headed to our best spot for picking huckleberries on Lookout Mountain. It takes about two hours to get there, including an hour up a very bumpy, dirt road. When we did get there, I wanted to take some pictures of the wonderful view, but I didn’t have a card in my camera (so disappointing!). I figured then I would just have to use my phone, but I had also forgotten it. Good thing Ruth brought her phone. So I just got a few pictures, spending the rest of the time picking berries.

Magnus was much better at finding (and eating) the berries than last year. When we got tired, we cooked some dinner, and waited for the beautiful sunset. We had a lot of fun.

Plus, our pile of huckleberries, will go to good use.

Magnus “go on a hike with Daddy”

Magnus and I went to pick Ruth up at Girl’s Camp in Oregon, and we took the scenic route. I planned the trip the night before using my books and maps to find something cool to see. Magnus got very excited about the map and started telling me how we were going on a hike to see a “big river” and a “big waterfall, go splash.” He was also very insistent on bringing his “packpack.”

 

First we headed to Silver Falls SP. When we got out of the car, Magnus ran most of the short hike exclaiming (while wearing his Batman shirt): “Batman runnin to see a waterfall. Batman run a fast!” The other visitors smiled a lot. He was so excited to be on a hike with Daddy. That made me feel pretty good.

 

Here we are looking at South Falls.

Part of the fun of this trail is hiking behind the waterfall. Magnus found a neat little cave to watch other hikers from:

Next we went to Cascadia SP. Magnus wanted to see the “big river,” so we played on the rocks for a while.  We also found wagon ruts from the old Santiam wagon road that passed over the mountains in the late 1800s.

Then we hiked to Cascadia Cave that has petroglyphs in it.

The cave was a place the natives would come to to pray for a good salmon catch. So there were some bear paws (though they were very hard to see) and other things.

We also hiked to Soda Creek Falls.

We eventually made it to Girl’s Camp and Ruth waiting for us. Heading home we saw this awesome sunset.