Thanksgiving 2013: Oregon Coast Highway

Oregon Coast Highway

November 25, 2013

I woke up at around 7:00 Monday morning, and it was cold!  I stay very warm at night sleeping in the Element, so I'm always surprised when I wake up to a particularly cold morning.  I wasn't crazy about having to spend $35 on the camp site, but at least it had showers.  I figured I'd jump in, warm up under the hot water and get on with the day.  No such luck.  Yes, technically there are showers at the Prairie Creek campground, but the water isn't heated, so unless you're a polar bear I suspect you'll want to skip this particular morning ritual when staying here.

Fern Canyon, Redwood National Park, CA

I dressed as fast as I could and put on my hiking boots.  Before hitting the road, I wanted to make the short hike into Fern Canyon.  The trail head is a brief drive down a dirt road past the Prairie Creek campground.  A few creeks have to be crossed and there's no bridges.  You get to just drive right through them.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Fern Canyon, Redwood National Park, CA

It's a fun little hike.  A trail takes you to the entrance of the canyon, then you can hike up into it as far as you like.  I only made it perhaps a quarter of a mile in before being stopped by a tangle of large logs that filled the canyon.  I thought about scrambling over them, but with a full agenda I decided to end the hike there.

Fern Canyon, Redwood National Park, CA

There is no trail inside the canyon.  You just follow the stream bed up into it.  The stream wanders back and forth, at times filling up the entire floor.  It's not deep, though, my waterproof boots were able to keep my feet dry.  I saw some platforms along the side of the trail coming into the canyon, so I suspect the park service uses them as foot bridges during the busy season.

Elk Meadow, Redwood National Park, CA

The road back to 101 runs through Elk Meadow, which is one of the locations I've had luck in seeing elk in the past.  I hadn't seen any elk in any of my other spots the day before and this is the last one I know of in the park, so I was extremely disappointed to not find any elk there.  I've never seen it look so beautiful, though.  A frost covered the ground and mist was rising from the grass and trees.  In spite of getting frozen out of an elk sighting there, I was still glad to have experienced the moment.  I had it all to myself, too.  Same with the canyon.

Elk Meadow, Redwood National Park, CA

Pacific Wren

All was not lost.  While the elk weren't actually in the meadow, they were close by.  I saw a herd less than a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the meadow.  There were fifteen to twenty females and young males and a single bull.  It was a harem.  They were eating frost-covered grass in a small field on the side of the road.  Of course, I stopped and snapped a bunch of pictures.

Roosevelt Elk -- Redwood National Park, CA

I waited for as long as I could stand for the bull to strike a nice pose for me, but he wasn't too keen on the idea.  I've got a bunch of shots of his ass or with his head stuck in the frozen grass.  I guess he only puts out for the local paparazzi, not the likes of me.  Pfft.  Whatever.

Trees of Mystery, Klamath, CA

Of all of the funky roadside attractions along 101 that I haven't been to, Trees of Mystery is the one that I really want to go to.  I didn't stop there except to get a picture, but I'm going to have to take the tour through it someday.  I always stop for a picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, but I never go inside.  I need to change that.  The Paul Bunyan thing has always seemed a little off to me.  He's more of a Minnesota thing, right?  Paul's face is a little disturbing.  I just figured out that the black patch on his chest is hair.  I always thought it was a shirt.

Crescent City, CA

Red-tailed Hawk

I stopped at the national park's visitor center in Crescent City to pick up a map of the park.  I've been collecting those, but I don't have them for the first few parks I visited.  I guess I'll be making trips back to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons to fill out my collection.  I just need an excuse, really.  I also picked up a cup of much-needed coffee at a drive-thru stand then hit the road into Oregon.

Oregon Coast Highway, OR

I took 101 up to Salem last year for Thanksgiving.  It was during a big storm, and there was a lot of drama to see on that drive.  The rivers were all brown and swollen.  Large trees were being washed out to sea, and when the rivers hit the ocean it was pure carnage.  Not so on this drive, and I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the good weather.  Yeah, it was pretty and I could drive with my windows rolled down, but the Oregon coast is at its best when the weather is at its most uninviting.

Red-tailed Hawk -- Oregon Coast Highway, OR

I stopped at Bandon Dunes to check out the golf course (again).  It sure does look like it would be fun to play.  That's definitely a trip coming up in my future.  I saw a few deer on the grounds.  They're not skittish around people.  I guess life on a golf course will do that to you if you're a deer.

Colombian Black-tailed Deer -- Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, OR

I stopped at Honeyman Park just South of Florence.  This was one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid.  There's a lake in the park at the base of a large dune.  I remember running down that dune and jumping into the water, seeing how fast we could go and how high we could jump.  That still looks like fun to me, although the dune doesn't drop into the lake as quickly as I remember it.

Dad put his old photos onto a DVD for me.  There's a couple of pictures of us in out life jackets on the dunes.  We were excellent swimmers, but we loved playing in our life jackets.  I guess we liked how we'd just bounce back to the surface, or how it didn't hurt when you hit the water at an awkward angle.

Honeyman State Park, OR

My last major stop on the drive for the day was at the Sea Lion Caves.  Most roadside attractions along the drive seem pretty hokey, although I have to admit I've done nothing but drive by most of them.  The Sea Lion Caves is something special, though.  It's a natural sea cave that is full of steller sea lions at the right time of year.  You have to take an elevator down to the cave, where you're separated from the sea lines by a chain link fence.  November is a good time to see the sea lions, but I didn't feel like taking the tour this year.  It was just as well, because just down the road I found perhaps a hundred sea lions hauled out on a few rocks.

Steller Sea Lions -- Florence, OR

They were pretty noisy.  Nothing new about that, though.  At least from this distance I couldn't smell them.  Heceta Head Lighthouse can be seen from the Sea Lion Caves.  There's actually a very nice view of it from within the cave itself.  It doesn't look too bad from the pullout by the caves, too.

Heceta Head Lighthouse, OR

With the sun dropping into the sea, I made one last stop for pictures.  It was at Thor's Well, where I saw a couple of photographers down on the rocks.  I can't imagine going down there to take pictures.  I guess I've heard too many stories about people being swept out to sea.  I've seen some amazing photos from this spot, though, so I guess I can understand why they'd do it.  It's not for me, though, no sir.

Thor's Well, Cape Perpetua Scenic Area, OR

It got dark after that.  I headed to Lincoln City and stayed at the Chinook Winds Casino.  After that cold night on the beach, the thought of camping wasn't too appealing.  It worked out well, I won enough at roulette to pay for my room, dinner, drinks and a tank of gas.  Thanks, Chinook Winds!