Monday, August 31: Yesterday was a down day where we moved from Grants Pass to Klamath Falls, Oregon and picked up a new rental car (a Ford Fusion this time - it gets us where we have to go but we are not impressed). No photos and nothing exciting happening (need some of those days once in awhile) so I decided to skip a blog post.

Today we drove up to Crater Lake. First things first - gift shop and coffee/cinnamon roll by a fire place (it was very chilly there this morning).

We decided to start with the East Rim drive so the sun would be best for photos throughout the day. We took a short hike to the Sun Notch view point and got our first glimpse of the lake. From that vantage point we could see the “Phantom Ship” island.

Our first glimpse of Crater Lake

Phantom Ship Island

The mountains rimming the lake and the two islands in the lake were reflected in the calm lake and the beauty of the scene was truly breathtaking

Orange pumice rock eroded in the shape of a castle

The weather couldn’t have been better. We heard many people talk about visiting the lake the day before when they were doubting there was even a lake there through the fog. Today was just the opposite - sunny brilliant blue skies reflected in an even darker blue lake.

View to the North

Wizard Island

Our lunch spot

The photographer at work - unedited iPhone photo - the lake really is that brilliant blue!

We spent about six hours covering the 33 miles around the lake stopping at many scenic overlooks. It was a day of just complete awe and admiration for the beauty that our Great God has created!

Saturday, August 29: Once again we had rain through the night that quit about the time we woke up. We took more time hitting the road today and took things much slower all day. We drove south across the state border into California as far as Crescent City and stopped by the Redwood National Park Visitor Center. We decided against driving any further south but did take a nice walk along the waterfront to get one last view of the Pacific Ocean.

We weren’t sure if we would see much of the redwood trees but were pleasantly surprised when the highway cut through the Jedediah Smith State Park and we were able to stop at a day use area and walk through some of the amazing redwoods.

The road started off very narrow and curvy and I was thankful that my excellent driver was at the wheel! Some of the time I just chose not to look out my window :-) Our lunch stop was at a turnout alongside the Smith River.

Once we crossed back into Oregon the highway widened and flattened out so we were able to make better time the rest of the way to our destination for the night - Grants Pass, Oregon.

It was a good location for a catch up stop - we found the Super Walmart to stock up on groceries and the campground had a nice laundry room to deal with the overflowing dirty clothes hamper. Just up the road from the campground was a Black Bear Diner that we could walk to and treat ourselves to a dinner out.

Friday, August 28: I expected to wake up to rain this morning. It was raining all through the night and the predictions were for it to continue through the day. However the rain had stopped by the time we woke up and after breakfast the sun broke through. We were able to have a wonderful walk on the beach before we left our fantastic campsite on the ocean.

We set off to see the sites along the way in the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area. The first stop was a spot called “Devil’s Churn”  which is a deep narrow channel where the waves are channeled with great force, booming and crashing on the rocks.

 

We stopped at a turnout just up the road for a coffee break and then continued just around the bend where we were told we could find the “Spouting Horn.” Sure enough the tides were right to force the water through a hole in the rock and spray out like a geyser.

 

All through that section the waves were almost hypnotizing as they crashed and foamed over the rocks. We spent awhile there and took plenty of stills and video. Just was we were about to leave we overheard an lady describing another water feature there that we almost missed. We went back to the beach to watch the action at “Thor’s Well,” A hole in the lava shelf causes the water to surge out of the opening and then drain back like a hole in the ocean.

There were scenic turnouts on almost every bend of the road.

Our last stop in this area was to view the Haceta Head Lighthouse. It was a peaceful sight set up on the cliff blinking out it’s signature light code.

Just a bit up the road from there we stopped for lunch in a picnic area with another beautiful ocean view.

By this time we had spent quite a bit of the day only traveling only about 30 miles down the coast so we had to drive continuously for a few hours in order to get to our campground before dark. We pulled into Harris Beach Campground about 6:20, set up and had a quick supper and then headed for the beach. I didn’t want to miss out on the last ocean sunset of our trip.

It was a bit of a hike to the beach and then we climbed to the top of a rock formation to get a great view. There were a lot of low hanging clouds that blocked the sun’s last hurrah for the day but just before that the sky was lit up beautifully and reflected in tide pools below us.

Thursday, August 27: The morning was spent returning the rental car and driving across the state to the coast. We stopped first in Lincoln City, ate our lunch there and spent some time on the beach. The day was perfect with lots of sunshine and a nice cool breeze off the ocean.

This time I got my feet in the ocean!

Oops, that wave was higher than expected!

From there we took part of the Otter Crest Loop scenic drive. There were some fabulous overlook stops along the way. We could see whales swimming by and got some video of a couple of them. We also visited the Cape Foulweather Visitor center on that route.

Waiting for lunch to arrive

The lighthouse in the distance was our next stop

Our next stop was in Newport at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. First we went through the visitor center with great displays telling the history of the lighthouse. Then we hiked to the lighthouse - we wouldn’t have had to hike so far except that the lady at the entrance booth suggested we should park the camper in the visitor center parking lot so we thought there would not be parking at the light house. Not so but, oh well, we got plenty of exercise again today.

We noticed lots of people walking around on the beach below so went down there to check it out. The tide was out and there were some great tide pools with interesting creatures such as star fish, anemones, and lots of mussels. There were also many seals basking in the sun on the large rocks near the beach.

The photographer's assistant

Great photos take lots of work

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Once we were done exploring around the light house area it was time to head to our campsite for the night. We have an amazing site at the Beachside State Park right on the ocean. We decided to eat supper on the beach and stayed there until sunset. The sky was clouding over quite a bit so we couldn’t see much of the sun, however the sky was beautiful hues of blue and purple.

View of the beach from our campsite

Our guard seagull standing watch while we watch the sunset