P.S.  We will be really out in the boonies tonight and may not have any internet - so there may not be a post in the morning!

Cave Junction, Oregon

 A very busy day today!  Heading south again, we saw a sign for the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.  Again, it wasn't on my list but seemed worth the 6 mile trip to see it.

Beautiful shoreline, of course.

Pretty purple flowers by the trail.

And a perfectly normal lighthouse....no one there.

After the lighthouse walk we went by the Hughes Historic House/Museum on the way out.  It was built in 1898 by a fellow who came out to try to find gold.  He ended up just settling there and raised a family with 9 children and built this beautiful 5 BR house.

 

The wonderful volunteer lady gave us a quick tour and let us explore on our own.

A neat side-trip.

Driving further south, we came upon the city of Orford.  We noticed that all the fishing boats were up on the dock....we read about it and apparently the harbour is too harsh to leave the boats in the water, so they lift the boats out EVERY DAY when then return from fishing!

 You guessed it, moving south down highway 101,  I'm not going to annotate each one....they were all just breathtaking.

Most of these views took a short walk from the highway.....this one is Arch Rock - quite lovely.

 Natural Bridges was a pretty viewpoint with "holes" in the rocks.

And then a sea fog rolled in......no further coast photos were taken since it was a compete whiteout!

But I did grab a photo of a neat bridge - this is apparently the tallest bridge in Oregon at 350 ft above the water.

The last activity on this busy day was to hike a trail to see some Redwoods.  A lovely loop with a creek running thru.
 

This was not a trail with huge redwoods, but there certainly were a few big ones.  One with a burned out center.

And another huge one on the trail.

 We were about tuckered out..... we dipped into California for about an hour on our way to our next AirBnB in Cave Junction, Oregon. 

 

 

The Middle River followed US 199 - beautiful river.

There apparently was a forest fire i this area as lots of the trees showed black scorch marks and most were dead.

 

And before long we were back in Oregon!
 

 

I want to share a little video that I made walking thru our cool cabin/AirBnB.  It's just lovely and we'll have a good time relaxing here.

 

North Bend, Oregon

 We started the day with a 16 mile drive thru incredibly curvy logging roads to Drift Creek Falls....it took over 30 minutes for the drive - we met a few cars - each time having to ease by each other as the road was incredibly narrow as well.  Even though it was "out in the boonies", the trail was well maintained and well traveled as well.

The trail was a little over 3 miles round trip.  The we passed the creek several times on the way to the fall.s

There is a cool suspension bridge at the falls.

Very nice fall....noisy!

 Next on our southbound journey was Depoe Bay - famously "the world's smallest harbour".  I don't know if that is entirely true but the "cut" into the harbour is tiny.  It's fun to watch the captains navigate the narrow entrance with the tide/waves pushing them in.  They only clear the rocky sides by a few feet!  You can see a boat lining up to go into the cut.

 Watch a boat come into the harbour - appears to be at full power!

 

And here is the small protected harbour.

 Then we drove further south on Oregon highway 101....it's just an amazing road with beautiful overlooks all along the way.

 

We pulled into an "extra" lighthouse - in Newport we saw signs for the Yaquina lighthouse. Wasn't on our itinerary but we had time so we did the short trail to see it.

 

Then it was lunch time so we pulled into a little state park that had picnic tables.  Enjoyed seeing all the birds on the rocks.  By the way, it was 72 degrees so quite enjoyable!

More roadside views!

 

 

 

Next on the list was a short stroll to see Thor's Well - like a large blow hole that "erupts" with high tides.

 

A little video of an eruption.

 And the last visit on the list was the Heaceta Head lighthouse.  Just another beautiful  lighthouse and an easy 1/2 mile hike.

 

Went inside the base of the lighthouse where a volunteer was giving info.  Cool brick interior.

 

A little more driving to get to North Bend for our next AirBnb....cool sand dunes along the drive.

That's it for the day!  Further south tomorrow.