Depoe Bay -- Smallest Harbor in the World and Whale Watching

We visited Depoe Bay today, a small, beautiful harbor about 9 miles north of Newport. We took the HHR tow car, which was a great idea since there really was not enough room to turn the coach around.

Not a big surprise, since Depoe Bay is the World's Smallest Harbor! There are several overlooks to the harbor and the small mouth to the harbor as seen below. The mouth of the harbor is a channel only about 50' wide -- and is an opening between SOLID rock! Wow -- I would not want to be running a boat through there if a large swell is running.

While we watched, the Coast Guard was training using their rescue boats. The practiced towing one boat with the other and towed the "dead" boat right into the harbor. This made for some precise navigation as you can see!

The entrance to the harbor is very short, perhaps 200', and goes directly under the bridge carrying Hwy 101. Naturally, the channel, although short, is rather twisty and surrounded by rock walls. Here, the two Coast Guard ships tow into the inner harbor. Clearly something you want to practice on a nice day so that when the emergency comes and the waves are high, your crew is ready to tow the stricken boat to safety.


The inner Harbor is fully protected against waves from the ocean and is beautiful, but small!



Depoe Bay's other claim to fame is that it overlooks areas that are frequented by whales. In the summer, grey whales seem to be prevalent and there is a whale overlook area right next to the 101 bridge for you to try your luck and see if you observe a whale.

Amazingly, Rick was fortunate enough to actually seen three whales (or one whale three times) as they surfaced, blew, and then dove to feed. Wonderful! The whale was just off the coast in the picture above and was feeding in the kep bed areas. We had a great day in Depoe Bay!

Breakfast at the Hot Rod Grill the on to Newport

Driving on Hwy 101 to the Elk's RV Park, we passed a very interesting diner -- the Hotrod Grill! As you can see, there are classic cars represented all around the building! And, as they say -- Wait! There is more!

What a great seat for a meal -- in a classic Ford, complete with engine.


The next question, How is the Food?? Fortunately, the food matched the decor and our omelet was super. We enjoyed our breakfast here and were ready to head north on 101.


By the way -- that side of a '57 Chevy is the real thing -- it has been literally cut off the car and mounted on the wall.



Newport, OR is on the shore of the Yachina River, which is a major fishing and recreational port on the coast. It is marked by a spectacular bridge, built in 1936 by the CCC.

While we were exploring the harbor area, I noticed this motorsailer was having a bit of a problem. Looks like the old "Not enough water on the keel at low tide" trick. You can look closely at the folks standing on the dock looking at the boat -- bet they are not very happy!The Hatfield Marine Science Center, operated by Oregon State University, is very well worth the stop. We just ran across this while exploring the harbor area and decided to stop and check it out.
Wow -- this beautiful anemone is typical of the wonderful exhibits the Center features. Not only are there many marine specimens, but there is also lots of information on their habitat.

Orinda, always the child at heart, got to check out the touch tank. She liked the spiny urchins the best!

The red urchin's needles will move toward your finger (very slowly) as it decides if your finger is a good thing to eat. Fortunately, this one was not too interested in us.

Coos Bay and the dunes area north

We enjoyed exploring the Coos Bay and Winchester Bay to the south. Coos Bay was once one of the largest lumber ports in the world and evidence of that background is easy to see. The city has now built a very nice boardwalk along part of the old port area with many interesting displays.

This retired tug boat, Koos 2, is such an example. Built in 1924, it was first used as a pleasure boat, but was then converted into a tug. It looked pretty small when compared to the large tugs of today.

North of Coos Bay is the Oregon Dunes area. We were really surprised that these dunes cover some 50 miles of the coast line and are up to 550' tall! They actually look like mountains that rise right from the sea.

We explored the area around Winchester Bay and found this huge dune where folks were riding ATV's on it -- it looked like a great ride! Apparently, as soon as there is some wind (and there is plenty of that), the sand moves and the dune looks like new. Some of the dunes move quite a bit each year as the wind pushes the sand around.


Cody was ready to go trail riding! There were hundreds of people riding in this large area, but it was so big, you only saw a few folks at a time. Some people camped right in the sand, but we decided to stay in the Elks RV park.

Winchester Bay is a very busy, but quaint port featuring all kinds of boats and small shops. While the bay was foggy, there was no rain, so we enjoyed walking around the bay area.

Rick stopped in a small store to get a cup of coffee and ran across this 1950's German coffee roaster in action. The beans were roasted for about 20 minutes, then fresh ground. That was some GREAT coffee!

Overlooking the bay, is the Umpqua River Lighthouse which is still in operation, but offers a great museum covering the lighthouse operations.

Here, Orinda is learning about the Fresnel Lens which give the lighthouse the ability to send light over 20 miles out to sea. These lenses and the lighthouse in general were really remarkable technology for the period.

Up the coast in Oregon, The Chocolate Factory and Print Museum

We traveled north on Oregon Highway 101, a 2 lane road most of the way, but a good road for sightseeing. The big plus on this road is that it follows the Pacific Coast and offers many gorgeous sights. Our Tour worked well and we had no problems, although I would pull on to some of the overlooks and let any traffic that was behind me go by.


The overlooks were great and offers many views like this of the coast. We were surprised at how rugged the coast is in most places.


These large rocks are typical of the coast line and it is very challenging to take a boat into some of these spots. There are also very few natural ports along the coast, so it is easy to see why settlements developed on rivers and the few ports that were available.


We did some exploring in the Coos Bay, OR area, and wouldn't you know it -- there was a real chocolate factory! Naturally, Orinda had to stop.
Through the glass wall, you could see how the various chocolates were made -- very cool. This is a rather small factory, but lots of fun to tour through.

And, YES, they offered SAMPLES! What a deal. We tried LOTS of difference chocolates and of course, had to bring some of the best ones along. What a great surprise this was.

Speaking of surprises, Rick found this small museum -- the Marshfield Sun Printing Museum, which is an original building that was used for printing the local paper starting in the late 1800's. The amazing thing about this is that the building was closed up after the passing of the proprietor and is now a complete printing and newspaper shop of that era.



We were given a"working tour" by our guide who showed how everything worked. Notice that everything is powered by hand -- there is no electricity! All the presses and equipment still work and it was really interesting to see how this took place "back in the day".


Ever wonder where we get all those fonts? Well, here they are -- each drawer is one complete font of metal characters. These all had to be "set" by hand before printing could take place. A very skilled job for sure. This was a great,museum and is very well worth the stop.

The Klamath Camper Corral, where were stayed in Klamath, was a very nice RV park and several fishing guides stayed there and offered services on the famed Klamath River. After Rick found out that Chinook Salmon were starting to run up the river from the Pacific, he was interested in giving it a try.

Dan, a camper who had the site next to Rick and Orinda, suggested that we team up and go out with Wild Rivers Outfitters, which is operated by Dave McLaughlin who was also in the park. Dave had a wonderful boat, seen above, which is 22' long and powered by a 6.0 litre jet drive -- it MOVES!

We fished right where the Klamath River empties into the Pacific -- which was a very rough and high current area. We were glad to have Dave's knowledge guiding us.

Dan was lucky enough to catch two Chinooks, while Rick had a couple of bites, but no fish. Still, the deal was that the boat shared the salmon, so Orinda and Rick still have some beautiful spring salmon for dinner!

The next day, Rick and Orinda walked out on the sandbar between the river and ocean (it was about 2 miles long!) and tried some fishing, but without result. Still, it was beautiful to see the river and ocean interact.

We did see a number of sea otters and seals swimming around as well as all kinds of birds. A beautiful sight.

Traveling on the Big Tree Scenic drive

We started the day with a trip to the Trees of Mystery attraction which features many novel attractions associated with the Redwood Trees in the area. Of prime importance to Orinda was the Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox statues -- in Redwood scale!


Once we left that attraction, we took the Drury Scenic drive which passes through many old growth Redwood trees. One tree, aptly named Big Tree, really lived up to its name. It is about 25' in diameter and 300 feet tall.

Rick and Cody try to show the scale of these trees which are massive.

This tree has survived a forest fire which resulted in the hollow center of the tree.

The Redwoods need constant moisture and a stable climate. This also allows many other plants to grow, especially ferns which are all over. This will give you an idea of the moisture that is present.

The redwood is also very adaptable and can grow on many different surfaces. This large tree started by growing on a downed tree and then spread roots out to the ground. Amazing.

Fourth of July in Crescent City, CA

We spent a great Fourth of July in Crescent City, CA, a small town in northern California. They really put on a great Fourth celebration here and offered a wonderful parade. As we waited for the parade, we found this huge log in the town square area that weighed some 52 TONS! Orinda and Cody were really interested in this.


Next to the log, was this piece of old, riveted steel. It looked like a piece of a ship's hull and sure enough, in front of the hull was this plaque:

It turns out that the steel was from the SS Emidio, a ship that was torpedoed right off Crescent City by the Japanese in early WWII. There is quite a bit of history in this area.

The parade was great and was dedicated to the WWII veterans, which was great. The parade went on for about 3 hours and really was fun to watch.

After the parade, we drive the Jedidiah Smith tour road, a dirt road that traveled through old growth redwoods. These trees stood well over 300', as can be seen in this photo. WOW!