Oregon Coast, 8-Jul
We continued working our way south along the Oregon Coast. We saw sea lions, sand dunes, and a lot of sea stacks. After that, we made it into California and met up with a lot of other group members who took the direct route rather than the meandering down the coast that we did.
Sea Lion Caves
After we woke up, we ate breakfast, packed the car, and started heading further south. We were going to meet everyone at Sea Lion Caves in Florence, OR, and we arrived just before they opened. The other car pulled in a few minutes later, and we all went inside to get tickets.
As we were waiting in line, the woman in front of us made sure with the woman selling tickets that she wouldn't get lost. Later, others in our group also wanted to make sure that they couldn't get lost. Each time, the ticket seller reassured people that there's no way that you could get lost.
Tickets in hand, we first went to an outdoors platform where we could look down at a rock with a lot of sea lions making a bunch of noise. There was quite a bit of fog, but we could still make them out.
We then wandered in the other direction to take an elevator down about 200 feet to the eponymous sea lion cave. You look into the side of the cave where sea lions seem to cover any surface they can get to. There were also a lot of cormorants flying around.
We then went up a series of stairs where we could look to the north of the caves towards Heceta Head Lighthouse. At least we would have been able to see it were it not for the dense fog. We looked at all of the cormorants and gulls flying around.
Eventually, someone mentioned that the lighthouse would flash every ten seconds, so that helped us figure out where the lighthouse should be. Soon after that, the fog started to clear, and we were able to see the lighthouse itself.
Having covered all the sea lion caves had to offer, we got back into our cars and continued south.
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
The next stop was to take a look at the Oregon Dunes at the Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. While we would have been able to use our National Parks Pass in the National Recreation Area as a whole, where we were parked was a state park. Coincidentally, as we were unpacking into our motel room the night before, the people next door were leaving and offered us their state parks pass, which still had a day or two left on it. We checked the list of parks, and Honeyman Park was covered, so we were set.
We headed out towards Cleawox Lake, following it a little bit until we came across a big sand dune. Climbing to the top was a bit of work, and we got a great view of the lake and the surrounding dunes and trees. We then descended and headed over to Lilly Lake to take a quick look at that.
Back in the cars, we went a bit further south to have lunch. The topic of peanut butter pie came up, so one person ordered one for dessert to share around the table, and we all got a taste.
Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint
We didn't look at anything about Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint before going there, and were pleased to find that it was a large beach with several different sea stacks on it. There was a small path at the top of the cliff, which let us get a view of several of the stacks, and as I was going around, I saw Melody halfway down a staircase to the beach, so I found the staircase and went down, too.
We were able to get pretty close to the largest stack, then decided we wanted to head back out so we could check in at the hotel before dinner. The other car stayed quite a bit longer, and it looks like they found some sea anemones.
Rest of the day
We hit the road again, our goal to get to Crescent City, CA, which is just south of the state border. We had some cherries, which we ate on the way in case an agricultural checkpoint was set up; the cherries would have been confiscated. Just before leaving Oregon, we filled up the car, since I was guessing it would be less expensive. Crossing into California, we saw that it was about 70¢ more expensive.
The agricultural checkpoint was closed, but we didn't have any problems finishing our cherries anyway. Pulling into Crescent City, we picked up some groceries, then went to the hotel. We saw that people were already going to the restaurant, so we put things into the room and then walked on over to eat with a couple of other people from the group who were also waiting for a table. One of the people happened to have her cherries confiscated at the checkpoint.
Dinner done, we walked back to our room, unpacked, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
