June 19, 2010

We awoke to a bright sunny day, though it was very cool.  Locals tell us this is their summer weather.  70s would be the normal high and 80 would be a heat wave.  The wind blows off the ocean all the time keeping it cool all summer.  It still amazes me to see people swimming while I am walking around all bundled up.

We rode up Rt 101, the Pacific Highway Scenic Route.  The coast is a continuous postcard photo.   We saw the sign for Point Blanco Lighthouse and decided to check it out.  Point Blanco is the most westerly point in the state of Oregon.  The lighthouse has been in use since 1870.  It is still operating today.  It sits high atop a rock on the coast.  The views are spectacular.  

We had to park the MH in a lot about 3/4 of a mile from the lighthouse.   We had to walk a very steep road to the lighthouse.  It was our workout for the day.  Darlie was snapping pictures of everything, as usual.  We spent an hour or so there taking in the view.  We returned to the MH and made lunch before hitting the road again.

After we passed Coos Bay, we came upon the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  The dunes are probably 150 to 200 feet high.  The sand is no longer the black and white ground up stone.  It is beige in color.  The same color of the surrounding hills.  There are no big rocks sticking up out of the water either.  

There are hundreds of ATVs running around all over them.  We checked a few campgrounds in the area but they were all filled with ATV riders.   The noise was more than we wanted to deal with.  

We finally stopped at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.  We figured it would be full this late in the day.  To our surprise, they still have some very nice sites available.  Full hook ups are just $24.00 per night.  

After getting our MH set up, we took a trail down along a freshwater lake that sits behind the dunes.  People were fishing and swimming.  One young man told me he had caught a small rainbow trout earlier.  There was another man out in the middle of the lake fishing in a big inner tube.

We rounded a bend and went up a hill to the Umpqua Lighthouse.  It is a working lighthouse that was built in 1890.  The site is also a well known whale watching location.

Grey whales pass by close to shore in their migration route.  During the season as many as 30 whales can be see an hour.  This time of year the last of the nursing females and young are passing by.   On average 1 per hour is spotted this time of year.  We didn’t see any.  The water was calm so spotting one would have been easy.  

Darlie standing next to the lower jaw bone of a grey whale.  

With a jaw bone that big, it must have been a female.

We are back at the MH now.  Darlie is pretty worn out.   It was a long walk with lots of up and downhill walking.  We will burn something on the grill and call it a day.