Oregon Coast 2013 Days 7 and 8

 

Days 1 and 2: The drive through Idaho, Multnomah Falls, and Arrival at the beach.

Days 3 and 4: Various Nearby Hikes, Cape Perpetua.

Days 5 and 6: Hikes, Beach, and Munson Creek Falls

Day 7: Friday. Last day on the beach.

Kind of a foggy day.

View from our room. We really didn’t like this place as much as some of the others and will not be using Pacific Retreats ever again. The ad was misleading, the furniture and other stocked items appeared to be thrift shop pickups, including a coffee pot that didn’t fit the maker which resulted in 2 huge messes! (One of the vacationers didn’t get the memo when the 1st incident occurred). Weird problems with both units including ripped carpet, a door off the hinges, a fireplace that did not work. And we have stayed in other units that I knew used linen services, but this is the first that the linens were just dropped off in a basket. It sounds nit picky but for what we paid we expected far greater and the real kicker was hiding the fact that it was on the cliffs. The site mysteriously doesn’t have any reviews which really should have been a red flag for us. Blah, that aside we had a great time this year so… moving on.

We hit the crap stores (souvenir shops) before leaving town. I got a pretty cool alligator stepping stone set. Then we headed towards McMinnville to have lunch with family before heading out of town completely.

One of the more shocking things I find about Oregon is that they do allow logging. Which leaves some ugly bald spots in sections. I am sure they are pretty strict but still it is pretty shocking. (DBP)

Mt. Hood and nasty Portland traffic. (DBP) We got lucky on the way in and hit no traffic. I think we made a record coming in. On the way out… not so much.

I like the way Mt Hood looks like it is floating as you can only make out the snowcaps. (DBP)

Being stuck in traffic allowed me to get some shots of Portland. (DBP) and in the last one you can see Mt St Helens.

What seems like forever after crossing the river (in actuality is probably only a few miles) you pass the last exit for Seattle and traffic reduces significantly and you return to freeway speeds. Phew! Have I mentioned I hate driving through Portland?

Entering the gorge getting nice and green again. (DBP)

I am not sure if this is one of the waterfalls of the Multnomah Falls Waterfalls Area, but is cool. (DBP) A quick glance of the falls in the area I am leaning on Latourell Falls but cannot confirm that.

And this would be Multnomah Falls itself. Not nearly as majestic flying by at 65 MPH. (DBP)  I would be remiss not to link you to a proper picture.

From our 2011 trip.

The squirrels at this rest stop, apparently used to being fed, come right up to you. Cute little guys.

OHM NOM NOM NOM. I have seen this before but never got a picture.

Columnar basalt (DBP)

Some big horn sheep. (DBP)

Windmills.

We stopped in Boardman at C & D Drive in for some chili burgers. They aren’t necessarily amazing, but are good and we always tend to get hungry about an hour before here and it is the 1st place to eat so they have become a regular stop for our past 3 trips or so.

some icky haze just before the climb into the Blue Mountains. (DBP)

With a moon. (DBP)

Strange river of dust? Smoke? I have never seen anything like this before. It is in the middle of a stretch of road prominently marked as a dust storm area, but still this is just bizarre! (DBP)

We made it up Dead Mans Pass and past La Grand trying to push on to Baker City. Unfortunately, There was a rodeo in town and Baker City was booked solid again. Crap. So we pushed on into Ontario which meant we had to do those steep windy canyon roads in the dark. They aren’t so scary during the day, but at night it is unnerving to drive through.

Day 8: Saturday.

The continental breakfast for the place we stayed was the best I ever had. They had a little diner on site and gave us coupons for our choice of any 3 out of 4 or 5 options. Wow! Nice hot breakfast instead of an ego and a banana like most places. Roadway Inn may be my new favorite random chain hotel. (not to mention the room was super quiet).

Ontario is almost on the border of Idaho so now the landscape is fairly boring. It was well past the halfway point so we decided to go ahead and hit The Trail Of A Thousand Springs scenic byway. I saw a sign for it a few years back and always wanted to check it out. It has a bunch of cool springs and some fossil beds. Plus, it really isn’t that much out of the way as the byway goes the direction we are going anyway, so why not?

Lookout for the Hagerman Fossil Beds. Uhm…  it’s a hillside.

We hit the visitor center where I saw a replica Hagerman Horse (Idaho’s state fossil)

They had some real fossils as well.

The ranger was very friendly gave us a map and explained a bunch of stuff to us. Asked if we were going to go to the fossil beds. I said, well we’re here so why not? She gave us directions and then informed us that they currently do not have any fossils on display in the beds. Oh. Ok.

Our next stop was the Hagerman Museum where we found an actual Hagerman Horse fossil (on loan for some other museum).

The museum is in an old bank. Here is the vault.

Cool old building though.

Old pioneer stuff.

Okay, so the fossil beds were a bust, and Hagerman is well, just another old town.

Random boulders strewn about are leftover indicators of the Bonneville Flood.

We have started hitting some of the Thousand Springs.

From what I read, there was a lot of speculation and wonder as to where the water source was. It even took a while to determine that they are likely the result of 2 rivers (Big and Little Lost) that just seem to disappear into nothingness. Well, actually an underground aquifer. And then it just erupts out of the side of the canyon here. Really cool! But, it appears, to really enjoy them, and to see it all you should do a river trip.

Another set (DBP)

A few more. One of the signs said that the traveling emigrants were really frustrated to see such abundant sources of water, and be unable to access it. I guess they were on this side of the river.

Another set (DBP)

Its true, you really should take a boat. The trees really obscure most of them from view. Still pretty cool. Not sure if it is worth the additional half hour to an hour it added to our trip, but I am glad we saw something other than the boring flatness of Idaho.

The byway lets out in Twin Falls, where we stopped for lunch. Nothing special just fast food. Blah. Then we had to take the bridge back over the Snake River.

The last res stop before entering Utah had quite a few crows. I like the 2nd image which has 3 on the ground, 3 in the trees.

Terrible shot through a bug smeared windshield… but we saw this from a few miles back and wondered if we were seeing a fire, or what exactly here? (DBP)

As we got closer the original, now obviously a dust devil, had started to fizzle out and a new one was starting to form. But look how high the original one was! I have never seen one this big before! (DBP)

Here is a wider one a few miles later, not as tall though. (DBP) Cool phenomenon on these old farms in northern Utah.

Before long 84 merged with 15 and we were in familiar grounds. We dropped Ma off in Ogden and headed home. I love going on vacation, but boy am I glad to be home. That is sure one long drive!

And that concludes our wonderful summer vacation. Thanks for stopping in. Sorry this last post wasn’t terribly exciting. :-p

The rest of the trip has more to offer, so here are the links again.

Days 1 and 2: The drive through Idaho, Multnomah Falls, and Arrival at the beach.

Days 3 and 4: Various Nearby Hikes, Cape Perpetua.

Days 5 and 6: Hikes, Beach, and Munson Creek Falls