The drive from North Bend to Waldport was beautiful. We saw sandy beaches and farm land and tons of Oregon State Parks. Nothing like the NC coast, where it's one big hotel or house after another. The legislature of Oregon was really great about making the beach accessible to all. Wish NC had been thinking like that too!
Our KOA was celebrating Independence day on July 3, so at 7:30 I participated in a S'mores party at the community fire pit. I guess I overdosed on S'mores as a Girl Scout leader, as I only wanted the toasted marshmallows. Yummy!!!!! At 10 the town had their fireworks, so I only had to walk to the edge of the campground to watch. Very nice, but by 10:20 I was COLD so headed back to the trailer.
July 4 we went across the bay for breakfast and stopped at a small street market before heading up 101 to Newport. It's a bigger town and is 15 miles north of Waldport. Ah, civilization!!!!! A Safe-way grocery store (think Harris-Teeter), fast food, beauty salon and lighthouses to tour!
On Thursday we satisfied our need to sightsee by heading back up to Newport to see the Yaquina Head lighthouse. It's a National site, complete with a Visitor/Interpretive center. We then drove to the lighthouse. It's the tallest one on the OR coast at 93 ft. tall. It was built in 1873 and has a Freznel #1 lens, which beams its light 20 miles out into the Pacific. It was open for tours, but we declined....114 steps and a long wait wasn't at all what we had in mind. We did enjoy seeing the thousands of birds on the rocks, a short distance from the light. We also saw six Pacific sea lions sunbathing on the rocks below us and were able to get pictures. When we get the camera unloaded I'll add some to the blog.
From the Yaquina Head lighthouse, we drove to the historic Yaquina Bay lighthouse, which was built first, in 1872. It has a Fresnel #5 lens, which only shines about 8 miles into the bay. Since it wasn't sufficient for the area, it was closed and decommissioned only two years after being finished. It sat for the next 100 years or so, and then the Historic Society of Yaquina Bay restored the house and the light, and started offering tours. In 1995 the light was turned back on, and since then has provided the light to local navigators in the Bay.
July 6 we headed 141 miles north to Warrenton and Astoria, OR.
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