Siuslaw National Forest, Central Oregon Coast

Thursday we hiked the Siltcoos Lake trail, a 4 mile loop through the forest that leads to a few hike-in campsites on the lake. It is so green and lush, and some of the trees are huge.

Yesterday, after moving to a different loop and doing laundry, we drove north up the coast to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. The keepers house is now a bed and breakfast, and it had a wonderful porch overlooking the Pacific.

Volunteers give tours of the lighthouse, but there were 2 busloads of kids ahead of us and it would have been an hours wait. We passed on the tour and continued up the trail to get a better view of the light at the top.

 

There was also a scenic overlook a bit farther up, but by the time we got there the fog was so thick, we couldn’t see anything. We did have some nice views on the way down, despite the fog.

These rocks were covered with birds, and the volunteers also had telescopes to view them with. We learned that they are Common Murres, Cormorants, and Western Gulls, for those of you who might be birders. Sorry, they aren’t visible in the photos.

We then drove a few miles farther north to the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area. They have a very nice visitor’s center and lots of trails. There was part of a grey whale skeleton on display, and it was mind-boggling to see the size of those bones. We hiked down to the coast to see the tidepools and crashing surf, which was as good or better than the geysers in Yellowstone.

This is called the Spouting Horn. When the waves crash just right, water comes spouting up through a hole in the roof of this cave.

One last picture from an overlook on our way back to the campground. It is really quite lovely here, but a little  too cool for our blood. It was barely 60 this afternoon, and extremely windy. I know, I complain when it’s hot and complain when it’s cold. Hey, what do you expect after being married to Jim for so long?