July 30, 2011: Depoe Bay and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse

We decided to do a little traveling along the coastline.  We drove to Depot Bay and spent the day watching the waves and shopping in all of the "touristy" shirt shops and gift shops.



The Oregon shoreline is the prettiest and most dramatic of any ocean shoreline we have seen.  Comparing it to the east coast as well as California, there is an awesomeness and majesty of this shoreline not experienced in other places.

 

It was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the high 60's.  With the wind blowing, it felt much colder than that.  Barb had to wear her sweatshirt whenever we were near the water.

The grey whales are known to frolic in the water along the Oregon Coast.  There were no sightings around Depot Bay, but people told us that some were spotted near Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  So off we went in search of whales.  We actually did see a whale twice but they were so far off shore that in any photo they just looked like a speck in the water.

Yaquina Head is a narrow, coastal headland extending one mile into the Pacific Ocean.  The Yaquina Head Lighthouse was built in the late 1800's and the first lighting was in 1873. 

There is a large rock right off the coastline of Yaquina Head that is the living quarters and nesting areas for many different kinds of shorebirds and seabirds.  When I first saw the black and white birds, I was sure there were penquins in Oregon.  Actually those are common murre.  Other birds in this photo include brown pelicans, rhinoceros auklets, cormorants and many other species of birds.

No ocean is complete without seagulls everywhere.

Love and hugs,

Barb, Linda and Bailey

Pacific Shores Resort, Newport, Oregon

We arrived to the Outdoor Resorts Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort on July 21, over a week ago.  We purchased this site last year in September the day before we left the area.  We were just taking a drive through the resort to see what it looked like.  There were several sites available for sale including this one.  We offered a contract to the previous owner and left the next day before we even knew if he had accepted the offer.  Well, he did ! 

We fell in love with it because it had a view of the ocean but also a view of forested area plus a level grassy area right in front of our motorhome.  It seemed perfect for meeting all of our "emotional needs"...... ocean view , forests, grass, a garden and mountains in back of us. 

Our rv site with hydrangeas on the left,
 nautical entrance on right,
 deck in back and grass area and trees behind deck

So we finally returned here this year to stay for the first time.  AND WE LOVE IT !

View of our garden and ocean in background

The deck, trees and grass area in background

Ocean View from front door

Entrance to our site has a nautical look

There are so many plants in this strip along our driveway that we are somewhat overwhelmed. I decided to count what is here. There are

• 10 ferns, 
• 1 rhododendrum
• 3 large hostas,
• one holly tree,
• one blue spruce tree,
• two pine trees,
• a hedge of some kind that borders the back and side of deck area,
• two trees that I have no idea what they are,
• one very tall (about 6') wide leafed ornamental grass plant,
• herb plants (mint, rosemary)
• plus several varieties of ground cover.

When our friend Anne came here to stay awhile in June, she told us that it was very overgrown. We had no idea how overgrown until she sent us a photo of what it looked like when she arrived. She spent part of her time here clearing some of the overgrowth plus hired a person to trim back the hedges and help her clear the area. When we arrived last week, we then spent about 4-6 hours each day continuuing to clear the area of undergrowth. We are very grateful to Anne for all of the work she did to help us.

BEFORE

AFTER

Close up of ornamental grass, pine tree,
some of the ferns,
two trees of unknown species,
and ground cover.

So this is our little bit of heaven. 

We will be here until early or mid September. 

Love and hugs,

Barb, Linda and Bailey

June 19-July 21, 2011: Our travels from St. Charles, MO to Newport, OR

Below is a map that shows our travels.  In summary, we left St. Charles, MO on June 19 and will arrive in Newport, OR on July 21.  Each of the numbered yellow squares is a stop we made.  Some stops were for one night and some were from 2-5 nights. 

Click on map to enlarge

July 17: Newberry Caldera Big Obsidian Flow

Today we walked on the rim of the crater of the Newberry Volcano. 

Click on photo to enlarge to read

The Big Obsidian Flow is a patch of black and grey volcanic glass covering about 4 square miles of the Newberry Crater floor .
When the volcano erupted 1300 years ago, the rocks it produced were volcanic silica and obsidian. Both of these rock components are very sharp and are used for making glass, weapons and other instruments.

Large boulders of obsidian

A view of the path we hiked.

Obsidian and Silica Rock

We walked up one side of the volcano rim to the top.  The pathways and the hillside were large boulders and small rocks all of which were the obsidian.  It was a great hike and the views were awesome.






Here we are sitting at the top of the world.

We had planned to drive to the top of Paulina Peak.
The road still had 3' snow.

After our big hike, we had lunch at East Lake.

The birds watched and waited
for us to share lunch.

July 15: Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

We checked with the Chamber of Commerce this morning to find out what other scenic drives and sites we should see while in the area.  Their recommendation wa the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway.  It is about an 85 mile loop.  We decided to select one section of the loop that was near about 3-5 lakes.  All in all , we probably drove about 40 miles of the loop.  With all of our stops, it took us about 4 hours.

North Twin Lakes

Deschutes River flowing into Wickiup Reservoir

Linda, Barb and Bailey resting along side one of the many lakes we viewed.

Cultus Lake

Crane Prairie Reservoir

Mt. Bachelor, elevation 9600'

The views across Crane Prairie Reservoir with Mt. Bachelor in the background were awesome.  More thrilling was to watch the four white pelicans (see lower left of photo) playing in the water.

Love and hugs,
Barb, Bailey and Linda

July 14: Newberry Caldera, Paulina Lake & East Lake

Today we drove to about 6000' to volcano-formed lakes and falls.  The Newberry Caldera volcano erupted about 1300 years ago. Paulina Lake and East Lake were originally one lake in the crater of the volcano.   Over time land mass uplifted and divided the one lake into two...Paulina Lake and East Lake

.

The views on the twelve mile drive to the volcano were magnificient.

Our first stop was to the Paulina Falls and then we drove on to Paulina Lake and East Lake.

Paulina Falls drop 100' over volcanic bluffs.

Deschutes River flowing into Paulina Lake waterfalls

A friendly visitor came to see what we were doing.

East Lake