Oregon Coast Vacation Days 1-3

 

Those who have followed my blogs over the years know that I tend to write a detailed account of the vacations I take. This is mostly to help me remember my vacations down the road, but also to share my experiences with people and maybe even perhaps give people ideas for things to do if they happen to vacation in the same area.

This vacation started out a little more stressful than normal. It was on, it was off, and last minute it was on again. So we kind of scrambled last minute. Not to mention right before leaving I broke a crown off. Luckily my old dentist was able to fit me in and get it fixed before we left. So we packed and got a late departure of around 6 pm with a 14 hour drive ahead of us.

Day One: Thursday

Day one was well, driving. We made it all the way through Idaho before it got dark. I really had hoped to push us past the halfway mark so I pushed on to Baker City, Oregon. I didn’t realize that this unfortunately meant we drove blindly through a very steep and winding canyon that we couldn’t see. That was a very nerve wrecking drive. But we made it, and found a well priced hotel to crash in. Now I would have given this hotel 5 stars even though it was a cheap super 8, however, people are inconsiderate. When we came in just after midnight we were quiet, we whispered walked quietly, and closed our doors slowly. It was after midnight after all. Well, I will never be so considerate again as at 6 am to about 8 am when I got up it was nothing but: SLAM SLAM SLAM thump thump thump thump SLAM SLAM! morning people are inconsiderate jerks! I guess they figure everyone should be up when they are! so I had to remove a star from the hotel because of this. Maybe they should consider the nature of people and soundproof better.

Day Two: Friday

Anyway, we got up, enjoyed our free breakfast and headed back out on the road. The first landmark I enjoyed, being the nerd that I am was the sign saying we just crossed the 45th parallel (halfway between the equator and the north pole) woo!  We then climbed yet another mountain that offered this amazing view.

Have I mentioned yet how much horizons freak me out? Particularly this one that just stopped. I could not for the life of me figure out why it stopped until we got 40 miles or so down the road and I learned that this was a dust storm area.

Dad: “What lake is that over there?”

Mom: “That’s the Columbia River, dear.”

Dad: “That’s a river!? Wow it’s so big!”

We finally reached the Columbia River signaling we were almost to our destination. YAY. I’m with my dad, it is pretty freaking huge! Of course, I have never seen the Mississippi but yea.

Next we got our first glimpse of Mount Hood. (part of my Drive By Photography album) There were a lot of things I would really have liked to stop and get out and take a proper picture, but I really just wanted to arrive at my destination.

Multnomah Falls – The namesake falls

View from the bridge.

Multnomah Falls was the one thing in the area I had researched and planned on doing. There are actually 10+ falls in the area and I had hoped on hiking up to all of them, but it was extremely crowded and we still had quite a way to go to our final destination. So we decided to push on. I did make it back before the trip was over (see the last day post).

Our trip route, provided by google ended up driving through the heart of Portland. I should have known better but I thought it couldn’t be so bad, and hell, why not scratch off another major city right? Oi. NEVER AGAIN! I… well, lets just suffice it to say I am not a fan of Portland, it’s terrible freeway system, or it’s terrible drivers. It is official, Portland drivers are worse than Utah drivers. (but not as bad as Idaho drivers) I will say that it appears to be out of necessity as the Portland freeway system is well, terrible. Ug. And then we were stuck in this traffic from Portland out through McMinnville. I did find a better route that does not put you through Portland, so next time hopefully I wont have to suffer through that part of the trip.

We finally reached the coast and made it to Depoe Bay. Of course this was now Friday and all of the tourists were here as well, so traffic was terrible here at the time. We made it to the hotel, checked in unpacked and went to check out the view.

People. I am not kidding this is the view just a few steps out of my door. How sick is that! Wait, wait, I have a cherry to put on top of this…

Those are seals. Real live seals sitting in the little private harbor in front of my room.

And look at this adorable pup! Again, in the wild, right outside my hotel room!

After thoroughly enjoying the wildlife right outside my door we decided to get something to eat. We were totally done driving and I had happened to ask where was the closest place to eat and the front desk lady told us Jacks. Less than a mile down the road. Let me do you a favor, do NOT eat at Jacks. It was terrible and over priced. ick.

Day Three: Saturday

Here is the Hotel we stayed in. Note the fog, it was foggy about 85% of the time we were here which I loved! I know, most people want sun when they are on the coast, I happened to enjoy the fog.

If the fog wasn’t ashore, it was always about a half mile off coast.

What is better than enjoying coffee and a smoke in front of the ocean? Well, Happening to see a Whale go by.

First photo a good “spout” second photo you can see his/her back.

This happened to me twice. I snuck out to have a smoke and a whale goes by. Second time I did not have my camera handy and It was twisting and showing flippers. Grrr. But it was still amazing to watch. I can’t believe how close to shore they come here!

More seals. These guys are so stinking cute!

After an exciting morning of seeing a whale we decided to head up north to Tillamook to see the cheese factory. Not a very photogenic place so I have no pictures, but I, and my family as well, all enjoyed getting to munch some squeaky cheese. (or cheese curds as my family is used to from the now out of business Star Valley Cheese.) nom nom nom.

After a lot of debate we decided to keep pushing North towards Seaside. I had my mind set as we were already halfway there, why not just go for it? My mom was with me in this thought, Jeff and Tammy were being back and forth. Eventually they agreed to continue north as well. We got to seaside, which advertises the “Famous Promenade” Yea, Seaside sucks ass. EXCEPT that is has an amazing beach. Of course I didn’t bring my swimsuit and even though I wanted to play in the water I was forced to roll up my pant legs and wade but it was great. So Seaside has the best beach, but the rest is kind of scary.

The Beach My Mom and Niece playing in the water

  My brother attempting to body surf.

As the tide went in and out I was enthralled with the fact that I was slowly being sucked into the sand. That is until we started seeing these creatures scurrying about and digging into the sand, and being discovered underfoot. Ok, I am done with the water.

 I don’t know what it is but its creepy.

The fog rolled in as we came out of the water.

After slowly dragging our way through the sand we decided we would meet in Lincoln City to have dinner. I however had plans to see more scenery so we took a slight detour west of Tillimook through the 3 capes loop.

Small patch of sunlight. Well i’ll be the ocean really is blue!

Here we arrived at Cape Meares which had a lighthouse. So we decided to take the short hike down to it. My dad actually decided that he could handle this short hike so he came along.

View of the cliffs

Foggy trail

Cape Meares Lighthouse. Free to visit.

View from the other side.

Octopus Tree – They aren’t really sure what caused this but it is cool. Designated an Oregon Heritage Tree April 2009.

There was actually quite a bit to do in this small area by the lighthouse. This was probably my favorite part of the trip because I got in a short hike with my mom and dad again, and they were both as excited as I was (they are both photography nerds too). My only regret was not taking their picture while we were here. I get so caught up taking pictures of the beautiful scenery, I completely space capturing some memories. I only have maybe 10 – 15 pictures of Landis and I, and believe it or not, that is a record!

Those 3 arches from sea level.

I believe this is Cape Kiwanda near Pacific City. That rock is stinkin HUGE!

If it were just me, I would have spent a lot more time in this area taking pictures. Waiting for the perfect lighting and such, it was absolutely beautiful!

That was definitely worth the extra time it took. My parents both enjoyed it, and within an hour of complaining that I described them as “gushing” in my Yellowstone post, they were both gushing about this loop, and the hike. hehe. I like it though, that tells me they really enjoyed it and I am very happy to have enjoyed that experience with them.

After this we finally met up with the rest of the family at Pier 101 for dinner. Okay guys, if you are anywhere near Lincoln City I definitely recommend Pier 101. This was the BEST place we ate. They even got a second visit from us! I recommend the prime rib (only on Friday and Saturday) or any of the seafood. It was all delicious. They are reasonably priced and their proportions were huge! So unless you can take in a lot of food, you can share your meal with someone which makes it even more cost effective. :) I would give this place 6 out of 5 stars, that is how good they are.

More on my trip coming soon!

Photo Of The Week June 20th – 26th 2010

Partial Lunar Eclipse:

We had a partial lunar eclipse in Salt Lake over the weekend. I honestly didn’t think that a) I would even be up that late, b) I would be able to see it from my neighborhood and c) I would even be able to capture it properly. Luckily, I was proven wrong on all 3 counts. Seeing as I have never seen a lunar eclipse, I will take that partial thank you very much.

This was near the beginning, after I FINALY got my camera calibrated to take a picture of the moon properly. (you should see some of the pictures before this one, yikes!) Sorry the watermark is poorly placed. This is towards the end of the event. After this the sun starts coming up, and the moon started setting behind some tree’s. I thought about staying up to watch it recede all the way, but it was way too late.   Here is a close-up of the first image. I STILL cannot believe I captured this.

As we watched the amazing event we talked about how it is no wonder the earliest civilizations were both awed and terrified of these events I mean, if you had no idea what a lunar eclipse was, and you started the night with a full moon, only to watch it slowly disappear what would you do?

All in all I am glad I stayed up to enjoy it.

Photo Of The Week: June 13th – 19th

 

This Segment I randomly decided to do is just my favorite random snap each week. I would like to note that this segment may not necessary cover any of my best work, but more something I felt was amazing. More than likely something within a mile of my home.

Crescent moon, and I believe Mars during sunset.

I am actually kind of proud of this as I snapped it while I went to get the mail, and did not have my tripod with me.

Pardon My Dust

I don’t know how this thought evaded me for so long, but today it struck me that I need 2 blogs. I need one for my Photography and one for everything else. I decided that there may be people interested in my photography that may not necessarily be interested in my random rants and observations and, although I sure more rare, vice versa.

So this blog, Random Rambler will now be my photography, and will typically stick to nature, with maybe a few other random photography interests. There will still be blogs regarding my random hikes local and in my travels.

My sister blog: Cabbit’s Life will be just that, everything else that I rant about and observe.

Over the next few days I will be moving unrelated posts from Random Rambler to Cabbit’s Life. I will also slowly be moving all of my old Myspace and/or Facebook blogs over to it’s corresponding blog. So long time followers, ignore the old content, or re-read if interested. New followers, enjoy some of my old stuff!

I am also updating the look of both of them to hopefully be easier to read and use.

Any and all feedback is always welcome.

Thanks!

Photo Of The week June 6th – 12th with Accompanying Survey.

 

Photo A                              Photo B

I had this dilemma this week week where I accidentally posted a photo before I had saved my modifications, which resulted in a debate. Which is better. a shot I took and made no modifications to, or a shot I took and made some modifications to. (which I actually do rarely believe it or not.) So, now I would like your oppinion. Please take a moment to fill out my Survey below.

Photo A as photographed. B “photoshopped”

North Canyon

Finally a weekend with decent enough weather to go on a hike. We started rather late in the afternoon so we did some quick research to find something rather close to us. There are actually quite a few trails around Bountiful so for the first hike of the year we decided to do a short one.

North Canyon is only 3 miles round trip awesome we will do that. So the instructions given to us were as follows: In Bountiful, take Bountiful Blvd. to Canyon Creek Dr. (3300 S.). Turn east and follow the road until the pavement ends. The trail head begins about one mile down the dirt road. The trail is about 1.5 miles long and has an elevation gain of 920 feet . Sounds easy enough. Wrong.

I should have google mapped it, but I though those were fairly easy instructions. I also figured we head generally to 33rd south and just go uphill. yea…. I should have known better. Bountiful roads snake around more than any other area in Utah. My plan did eventually work but we were starting to wonder towards the end, when we finally hit Bountiful Blvd. YAY! We then quickly found Canyon Creek rd and where we needed to be.

Now the first thing you should know unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle you got another mile each way added to the hike. There is no way my car could have traversed that dirt road and I am glad we didn’t try.

On the plus side, even the dirt road is a rather pretty hike itself. There appear to be some private property next to the road as there were sections of barbed wire and lots of signs. We even found a house for sale about 1/3rd of the way up. Kind of wish I took a picture of it because it was a cute house that say on a patch of land the creek splits and goes around both sides. Short of it would suck to live there in Winter I think it would be an awesome place to live.

I really like these random rose colored bushes we saw through the trail.

We finally reach the trail head were the creek has carved itself a rather narrow and deep bed.

Just before the trail started to gain serious elevation we heard a snap in the tree’s. We look over to see an animal ambling through. If you look close enough at the above image you can just make out a small piece of dark fur. At the time we thought it was a deer, but looking back, it had to be a moose. or maybe a horse, although I don’t know what a random horse would be doing here. Just the color and size is wrong for a deer I think.

Our first glimpse of the view to come.

Every time the tree’s opened up and offered us a view of the valley below I stopped and took a picture and every time it was even more breathtaking than before.

Random swampy area and a bridge some nice people put here. :)

We enter an area with Pine tree’s.

One of my favorite parts about this hike was that we kept stepping into different forests. First was the straggly oak looking tree’s, then Pines, then Aspens, and so forth it’s kind of cool.

GINORMOUS shrooms. look at those monsters!

The view again.

This shot captures my earlier statement about the different tree areas. The trail snakes back and forth through that strip of pines.

I can see my house from here! Not really, but I can make out it’s general vicinity and determine its hidden just under the hill.

We reach the top of the canyon and can see down the neighboring canyons on either side.

Bountiful.

Salt Lake

The trail actually splits here and appears to go down either canyon. We decide we have gone far enough and start heading home.

I liked this random patch of tree’s.

Us with the amazing view. Using my creative Tree-Pod idea I snap judgment created. Unfortunately it had to be cropped as well nature doesn’t really offer a level.

After a short break and a resounding agreement we have definitely gotten our daily exorcise in we decided to head down.

I guess we were quiet enough at the peak to give a few deer a chance to think they were alone. I snapped this one shot then ultimately decided I needed my telephoto. Before I could even pull it out they were gone. So here is some digital zooming.

I really wish I had just snapped more pictures rather than immediately going for the zoom as I only caught the one image and then they were gone when I looked up next. meh, what can you do.It was rather funny however that we had obviously spotted each other at the same time. I stopped (and stopped Landis) just as they stopped and stared at me. I turned my back and they were gone. Sketchy little creatures.

There were a few sections on this trail that were lined by these pretty yellow flowers, almost like someone planted them like that.

Even death is beautiful.

I don’t know why I do this to myself but I always seem to take a picture of a small animal, or any random animal too far off when I don’t have a telephoto lens available. Then when I am going through the images I am always like why did I take a picture of that? Amazingly, this time I remembered. There is a woodpecker in there somewhere.

All in all this was a great hike. Particularly considering it was Memorial Day weekend, we saw only a few people, a car and a motorcycle on the dirt road portion, but as soon as we actually hit the trail, no one. Not another single soul. This definitely bumps it up at least one squirrel rating.

Very pretty, very quiet, wildlife, no end “prize” as people like to say, save for the view. And what I would classify as easy to moderate climb.

Going to have to go with 9 squirrels out of 10.