Oregon agates & driftwood, south to northern CA

Really enjoying the Oregon coast, especially when the sun shines! One stop at Pacific City showed us this huge sand hill that people climb up and toboggan down the other side!

the huge sand hill for tobogganing

We are lucky enough to see gray whales when we get to Baja but here in Oregon they have a resident pod of them that hangs around most of the year – we were happy to see several of them in the bay at Depoe Bay.

the bay where we saw the whales

 We moved south to Carl G. Washburne state park, full hook-ups for $31/night, pretty good deal! Trees are covered in moss, a short hike to the beach, close to a great beach for agate hunting. We have quite a collection of agates, pretty rocks (mainly jaspers) and driftwood.

Robin in his big hat, having pie iron

cool agate, patterned inside with light shone thru

Oregon agates that we found

Lots of antique malls around, stopped a couple. Also a lot of kite shops and wood carvings. 

 We have not really watched much TV or DVD’s previously when RVing but this coach has a Shaw dish with 2 receivers, a local TV antenna, surround sound, blue ray player and 3 TVs!  – we borrowed some DVD’s and have now finished season 2 of Game of Thrones, plus a few other movies and some TV. We haven’t used the outdoor TV but probably later when it’s warmer. Excessive, we know but it all came with the unit.

antique mall

so may kites, all shapes and sizes

Stopped in Port Orford where they use a huge crane to lift & lower the fishing boats into the water.

crab traps

cranberry bogs, along along the hiway

They build some pretty elaborate bridges here, makes for some interesting photos.

Our next stop was at Cape Blanco state park, closer to Gold Beach, Oregon. Windy, rainy weather, lots of waves, huge piles of driftwood and bull kelp. We took in the lighthouse tour at Cape Blanco – got to climb up to the light which was quite a sight, good views of the coast. Day trip to Gold Beach for more beachcombing, not as good as last year, a huge gravel bar totally shifted location, apparently does this depending on the storms.

piles of bull kelp

standing right next to the light in the lighthouse

Cape Blanco lighthouse

Gold Beach gravel bar

Sad to leave the beach, headed south Oct. 22, drove through the redwoods in the rain. Passed a good sized herd of elk hanging out in a campground. Chose a highway to head inland, #299, unfortunately not the best choice for a big motorhome! Robin was not happy – lots of curves, hills, mountain passes – only good part was that we did most of it on a Sunday so avoided the logging trucks and traffic. We spent one night in a rest area, didn’t feel entirely safe as there were several cars parked there overnight as well - ?sleeping. Seemed a bit strange.

redwoods

We are now in Redding, California seeing the sights. We toured the Shasta Dam, the 2^nd largest (by mass) in the US – started on top of the dam, down the elevator to the bottom. Private tour, just us, thorough and very informative.

Shasta Dam

 Walked across the Sacremento River on the Sundial Bridge, complete with glass walkway!

Walked along the river, got to see some strange ducks and a turtle, got lots of exercise. Hoped to see salmon spawning at a nearby creek, saw only 3, but again, more exercise. 

Sundial Bridge

looking for salmon spawning

The weather greatly improved once we got into California, the high has been 30C, can’t complain but we sure aren’t used to it. We went from using our electric fireplace to needing the A/C! Still figuring out the RV, taking our time along the way. Taking advantage of some good WiFi for this update, until next time….