Highway 101

Part of the fun of this trip is that we had taken 101 from Olympia, WA down to Newport, Oregon, a few years ago so it was fun to add the segment from San Francisco up the coast to Astoria, Oregon.  It was a beautiful drive going from 2 lane divided highway to two lane winding roads and then back to a divided highway.  A few times it even went to one lane as road crews were either repair the roads or bridges or cleaning up rock slides or downed trees from recent heavy rains.

Thursday and Friday we headed up the coast--stopping to visit beaches, do short hikes, or visit sites.  We didn't have any specific agenda, just stopped at what looked interesting.  I was hoping to see a whale, but no luck with that (although when we stopped at the Whale Museum in Depo Bay they said there was a grey whale in the bay all morning long but we came in the afternoon.)

We got some cool pictures but didn't end up taking the whole hike down to this beach.  It got steep and rocky which makes for hard climbing for Jena (and possibly for us!).

Within this state park was also a Native American area which is still used for celebrations for one of the local tribes.

Farther up the road, we found a beach that was much easier to access...but it was cold and windy so only Gary actually got his feet wet.

The sand was almost black but very fine and nice to walk in.

I love the ocean, the sand on the beaches and the waves....one of my happy places for sure (and taught or inherited from my mom who also loved beaches).

Heading down the road we ran into this herd of elk.  They had no fear of the cars and really didn't show any fear of people either.  We stayed our distance.

We turned at the Elk Flats and headed up and down some hills and in and out of the trees on a mostly dirt road......

and through a stream......

There was another car in front of us that had pulled over before the crossing to decide if they were going to take their car through.  They had done their research and knew about the crossing (we didn't--we were winging it) but were surprised on how much bigger it looked in person.  They headed across first and we followed behind after they were safely across.  More of an adventure than we planned with our new car, but fun...both in and out.

In case you were thinking about petting the elk, these signs were around the whole area....

And some REDWOOD tree photos..

In person, you can see the dark red 
of the trees

We got to cross on a temporary bridge as they were replacing the regular bridge.  What a production to keep the roads and bridges safe to travel especially in these more remote areas.

And more beach pictures because.......

Friday morning we stopped at the Sea Lion Caves.

This is a light house across a small bay from the Sea Lion Caves.  It claims to be one of the most photographed lighthouses in the US...probably due in part to photos taken from the Sea Lion Cave site.

This is a natural cave which has been used by sea lions for maybe centuries.  They said that there were about 250 sea lions in the cave that day.  It is quite a sight (and sound and smell) experience.

From an outlook, you can see this pretty waterfall.

Driving through coastal towns, you see some fun stuff.....

At stop at the Whale Museum at Depo Bay

Down the road, we visited another lighthouse...

We were glad that we had our winter coats....

Loved the many many bridges we traveled on....

We took another detour to an overlook hike.....on a clear day they say you can see 35 miles out to sea.

It was a pretty little hike to the view area.

And finally the last beach for the day...the famous Cannon Beach

This time, I touched the water but no one else did.  It was getting pretty cold by now.

View of the bridge crossing from Astoria into Washington....101 heads across that bridge but since we had traveled that road before, we headed a more direct route towards Interstate 5.

We traveled down the Columbia River On State Highway 30 and spent the night in Clatskanie, Oregon.  For dinner, we ate food from a Wal-Mart in Astoria.  No fast food sounded good to us that night. 

Thursday night, I had started getting a sore throat and by Friday morning, I felt sick with a basic cold....but because of the world we live in, I texted Tosha and Austen to see if they wanted me to take a Covid test before we came.  They said no worries...I didn't ever have a fever and only a minor cough but we did sleep in on Saturday before heading the rest of the way to Tacoma.  Fortunately, no one else got sick so I don't think I was spreading Covid up and down the coast.