johnboystravelblog

Wednesday on my way north from Glasgow to Florence I passed through these two towns which are located on opposite sides of the Umpqua River.

These were taken at a shipyard in Reedsport.  This appears to be a tugboat which is probably here for repairs or upgrades.

And I was told by someone who works here that this is a new ship being built for a customer:

Further up the road is the little town of Gardiner.  According to a sign along the highway a ship from Boston (owned by a man named Gardiner) ran aground near here in 1850.  Much of the cargo was successfully unloaded and this became known as “Gardiner’s town”.  A sawmill was built in 1864 and another was added in 1877, making Gardiner a very successful lumber port.  A major fire destroyed much of the town in 1880.  The town was rebuilt and from 1885-1916 was one of the busiest towns on the Oregon coast.  There is no longer a sawmill or lumber factory here but here is the town of Gardiner today:

And here is the view looking out at the river.  Off to the right the railroad tracks lead to  large fields and a few buildings where the lumber mills once stood.

Wednesday I drove about 16 miles beyond the town of Florence, Oregon to get to this historic lighthouse.  The Heceta (pronounced ha-SEE-ta) Head Lighthouse was commissioned in 1894 and is still operational.  It is 56 feet tall and sits approximately 205 feet above sea level.

Here is an image from the highway as I approached the lighthouse from the south (Highway 101 rose several hundred feet above the ocean a few miles before I got to the exit but had dropped back down as you will see shortly):

Once I got off the highway I drove to the parking area at a small beach.

From this vantage point I could see the assistant lightkeeper’s house but not the lighthouse itself.  I had to walk up a half-mile path to get to the lighthouse.  Along the way was a map which shows the overlapping “coverage” area several of the lighthouses in Oregon I have shown you provides.

This lighthouse’s beam is the brightest in the state and can be seen 21 miles offshore.

Further up the path I had a nice view looking down at the beach area where I had parked.  You can see the highway bridge I crossed and then drove under to get to the parking area.

There was another sign with a photo of the lighthouse and both lightkeeper houses taken years ago before the trees got so tall.

The big house on the left is no longer standing but the smaller structure behind it is a gift shop.  Here is a closer look at the house which is still standing (now a Bed & Breakfast).

I continued walking up the hill and finally made it to the lighthouse, which is similar in design to the Umpqua River lighthouse I had seen earlier in the day..

Here is the view looking south towards the coast.

And when I left I was able to stop at a second overlook on the highway (there were tour buses there when I was driving north):

 

Shortly after arriving at Shore Acres State Park Tuesday morning I saw two guys with radio-controlled trucks on the rocks out by the ocean:

Finally, after several attempts but without manual intervention, he made it!

It was no surprise when I got out to the parking lot to see what the “driver” and his buddy arrived in:

I just wish I had a real helicopter to use when I go fly my radio-controlled models…

 

Tuesday I spent several hours at this Oregon State Park, just south of Charleston.  This Park was once the site of a mansion owned by a wealthy local businessman which sat high on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.  The house is gone but there is an observation area out by the ocean which offers some spectacular views, both to the north and south:

About 20 minutes after I took those photos, surprise surprise, a quick batch of coastal fog moved in:

After the fog cleared (it didn’t last long) I stood at a high point above the ocean and waited for some coastal birds I have been keeping an eye out for.  When I first walked around to get the lay of the land I didn’t have my digital camera with me.  When it became apparent I would need it I went to retrieve it and saw this young buck munching on some grass near the parking lot:

He wandered into the woods but I’d see him again shortly.  As I continued walking towards where I had parked I saw an usually colored squirrel:

By the time I got a picture it had moved pretty far away.  I returned to the spot several times during the day but never saw it again.  It is a Douglas Squirrel and is dark on it’s back but had red or brown fur on it’s chest:

(Photo credit: Kathy Munsel)

(Photo credit: Ashok Khosla)

Once I had the digital camera and was walking back to watch for birds I saw the deer again, this time standing on his hind legs to eat berries out of a tree (when I lived in the farmhouse in Durham I used to see fully grown deer do this in the apple tree orchard just up the hill from the house).

Back at the ocean overlook I spotted this rock down by the water with a very interesting pattern on it:

Tuesday I visited this Oregon State Park just south of Charleston.  I finally was able to track down two birds I have been keeping an eye out for (after having seen pictures of them on signs near overlooks), and had one unexpected visitor.

First, the Pigeon Guillemot.  I mainly saw these floating on the water.  At one point two of them stood on a rock but I didn’t have my digital camera with me.  Once I had it, they stayed in the water the rest of the time.  An interesting feature of these birds is that their feet are bright red and the inside of their mouth is the same color.

Here is a photo I found online:

(Photo credit:  Jacob Drucker)

Next up – the Black Oystercatcher.  I have looked and looked in areas where I thought I’d find these distinctive birds with bright red bills and pink legs, both at low and high tide, and Tuesday I finally found one – way offshore on a rock formation.

Here are some better photos I found online:

(Photo credit: Dick Daniels)

(Photo credit & copyright: Tim Foltz)

And finally, as I waited and waited for the first two to show up, this Belted Kingfisher landed on a rock down near the water close to the cliff where I was watching from:

Tuesday I spent some time at this Oregon State Park, on the site of the former Louis Simpson estate.  Mr. Simpson, a wealthy lumberman and shipbuilder, imported plants from all over the world and had several acres of formal gardens next to his mansion which sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean.  The mansion and gardens fell into disrepair during the Great Depression and the state bought the property from Mr. Simpson.  The house was too expensive for the state to restore and maintain and was razed but the gardens have been restored and are now part of a gorgeous State Park, just south of Charleston.

Here are more flowers I saw at this Oregon State Park, which sits above the ocean just south of Charleston.  These are in the restored formal gardens of the former Louis Simpson estate.

Another section of the gardens at the former Louis Simpson estate (now an Oregon State Park) is the 100-foot long lily pond.

For three nights I have been staying in Glasgow, just north of this town in southwest Oregon.  With a population of just over 16,000, Coos Bay is the largest town on the Oregon coast.  It also has the largest deep-draft coastal harbor in the state.  As I write this there is a huge cargo ship down on the inland portion of the Bay which is loading an incredible amount of logs to be taken somewhere in the world.  The Coos River creates a large bay on the east (inland) side of the city, then bends around on the north side (I have to cross a bridge there to get to where I’m staying) and creates another bay on the west side of town before opening up out into the ocean.  That west bay, between Coos Bay and Charleston is where most of the fishing boats dock.  The two big industries here are fishing and logging.

Monday morning I went downtown and spent some time along the boardwalk, which runs along the inland bay.  This is the calmer side where most people dock their pleasure crafts.

This is a little restaurant which sits right down by the water:

Before they opened at 11 o’clock I could watch this guy skillfully cleaning fish outside the building:

I hung around until they opened and had a bowl of clam chowder.  While I waited I checked out this old, restored tugboat which was on display under cover up along the boardwalk:

And while I was on the upper platform looking down on the boat I caught these birds out on the posts which support the dock:

At first I thought this gray bird was lying on eggs but he or she got up at one point to shift positions before taking a siesta and I didn’t see any eggs.

There is a scenic road which takes you south along the coast a few miles from Charleston, Oregon, not far from Coos Bay.  This was the area from which I could view the Cape Arago lighthouse and also has two State Parks, one of which I will be posting pictures from tomorrow.

Along that road is an overlook which allows people to watch and hear the activity out on the rocks offshore.  This is where literally hundreds of seals and sea lions like to play in the water and, more often, nap and “sing” on the rocks.

The photo above was taken Tuesday at low tide, when a much larger area of rocks is exposed and the seals and sea lions were on the rocky areas much further out in the ocean.  The rest of these photos were taken Sunday at high tide when the water came almost all the way up to the mainland and the seals and sea lions were much closer.

There are different types of both animals which hang out along this part of the coast and their “barking” goes on non-stop.  It sometimes has a very rhythmic, musical quality to it.  Sea lions are generally smaller in size that seals and the easiest way to tell them apart is how they use their flippers to move around on land.

This seal evidently had barked himself to the point of exhaustion. This sequence of shots were all taken within a minute: