A Little Adventure

When my parents were here last week, I realized that we could easily go see The Round Rock on the way home from lunch one day. I had known it existed and hadn’t gone to see it yet. It was fun to go see it and learn about the history of Round Rock.

The Round Rock. We took a picture of it from the other side. It is a big table-like rock.

The Round Rock was known for being the lowest point of Brushy Creek were you could easily cross. The Brushy Creek Post Office was established in a section of Thomas C. Oatts’ store on May 27, 1851. However in 1854, postal authorities asked Mr. Oatts to provide another name for the settlement (being that there was already a town in the State that called itself Brushy). Mr. Oatts decided to rename the town Round Rock in recognition of the large rock in the middle of Brushy Creek where he and Jacob Harrell spent much time sitting and fishing; thus on August 24, 1854, the name of Round Rock was officially given to the community.

The picture and some of the text came from the City of Round Rock’s website. You can read more about it at the link.

With warm weather just around the corner, I’ve been reminiscing about our adventures last summer and thought it would be fun to create a top ten (or a few less) list for time in California and for our Oregon Coast trip. I hope you enjoy them.

Top Seven List for the Oregon Coast

7. Waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge
6. Oregon Coast Aquarium
5. Sitting on the beaches watching sunsets
4. Heceta Head Lighthouse
3. Yaquina Head Lighthouse
2. Tillamook Cheese Factory visit
1. Crescent Beach

Top Ten List for California

10. The park with water that Milo enjoyed so much
9. Pebble Beach
8. Monterey Bay Aquarium
7. Yosemite National Park
6. In-N-Out visits
5. Big Sur
4. San Francisco Zoo
3. Ghirardelli Square sundaes
2. Golden Gate Bridge
1. Crissy Field

Good times!

I guess since we didn’t have any photos to go along with these last two posts they were forgotten. I am going to post them now before I post about our most recent adventures…

After we woke up on Saturday morning, we took it easy. In the afternoon, Scott, Monica and Scott’s aunt Teresa left to go see a few things around Portland. Our first destination was Powell’s City of Books. It seemed that the bookstore took up the entire block and is well, huge. It was multiple levels and had a bunch of different (colored) rooms. We started out in the children’s book section and even found the nursery rhyme book that Milo enjoyed in California. We looked around at several different areas and spent a while there.

After the bookstore, we went up into Washington Park to the Rose Garden. There were some beautiful roses there. We enjoyed that. We also went and saw the Vietnam Memorial. That was awesome as well. Scott wanted to see an overlook for the city and so we spent a bit of time looking for that. We did find a hike that said “overlook”. When we finally got to the “overlook”, the trees had grown in, and so we weren’t able to see much of the city. On the way back home, we drove through the city and it was very fun.

When we got back to the house, Scott’s cousin Paul said that the weather was good enough to go flying. [Scott tells the story] We hopped in the car and headed to the airport a few miles away. Paul took care of everything at the front desk and we went out to check the airplane and get going. The first thing I noticed was how small the airplane was. It really didn’t seem much bigger than my car. I can now see why the weather is such a big factor for these small planes. We took off without incident and flew over the downtown area and the Columbia River Gorge as well as Willamette Falls. I was really quite impressed with how Willamette Falls looked from the air. It was also very interesting to see the terrain we had been hiking in the Gorge from the air. I was quite surprised at how smooth the flight was…apparently the wind had really died down. We followed the Columbia River back toward the airport and landed safely. I didn’t even get sick. I was a bit anxious about the whole experience (especially after I saw how small the plane was), but it was very enjoyable.

As we approached our last day away from SLC, we were beginning to realize that our whirlwind adventure to California and up the coast was coming to an end.

In the morning when we woke up, the wind was blowing a little bit and much to our dismay, one of the other campers was smoking a cigar. We ended up smelling cigar smoke all morning. That wasn’t too pleasing, but it somehow seemed appropriate to top off our Cascade Locks experience. We quickly gathered our stuff and left. We will look for a different place to stay the next time we visit the Columbia River Gorge.

We started the day of hiking going up to see Wahclella Falls. It appeared that not many people stop to see it, because it really isn’t signed until after you get off the freeway. This hike was a loop trail (what Scott calls a lollipop loop) about 2 miles long. The falls were really beautiful. These were one of the better falls that we saw on the trip. The sun wasn’t up far enough yet to ruin the photos, so Scott spent too much time taking pictures. Milo eventually became restless and cold, so we headed back to the car.

Our next destination was to see Horsetail Falls. We pulled into the parking lot and took the requisite photo of Horsetail Falls which is interesting, but not spectacular. We then put on our hiking shoes and continued on about .2 miles further to see Ponytail Falls. Ponytail Falls is very beautiful as well as fun. You see the trail takes you right underneath Ponytail Falls which is pretty cool. Milo certainly enjoyed that part. We continued up the trail and crossed the Oneonta Gorge. Scott was pushing to see Triple Falls. Monica was already tired from not sleeping well and wanted to stop several times before we made it to Triple Falls. She did manage to push on with a bit of encouragement from Scott. When we finally made it to Triple Falls the sunlight was shining brightly on the falls and made the picture taking a futile endeavor. The falls weren’t really that beautiful…interesting, but not beautiful. Monica and Milo took a short rest while Scott tried to find a better view…he of course didn’t find one. We grabbed a bit of lunch and turned around to go back the way we came.

There were still a few hikes left on Scott’s todo list. He made a few pleas but was quickly outvoted by Monica and Milo. They had suffered through enough of Dad’s “encouragement” for one day. We headed into Portland to see Scott’s aunt and uncle and their family who were nice enough to let us camp for a couple of nights in their backyard. We just hung out that night and were able to relax. That was a welcome change…

Note from the photographer: Auto-white balance didn’t work well on many of these photos and I didn’t take the time to correct it. A few look okay, but most are borderline to awful. Sorry about that. I will eventually correct the best images and post them to my wallpaper gallery.

After cleaning up camp, we headed to the Columbia River Gorge to see…waterfalls of course! Scott was being a lazy navigator so we took the scenic (and longer) route through Portland. We simply stayed on the 30 until it dead ended. We decided that was something we didn’t need to do again…interesting, but not THAT interesting.

Our first stop was Crown Point. It was nice to get out, stretch our legs, and see the beautiful vistas. We went out on the upper balcony and showed Milo the Gorge and Columbia River. After that short stop, we hopped back in the car and headed off to see the waterfalls. The first waterfall on our list was Latourell Falls. There were two trails from the parking lot. Scott of course chose the one going up first. We hiked up that path for a few hundred yards to some nice views of the falls, but the best photographic views were found via the lower trail. Latourell Falls isn’t particularly spectacular, but it was a nice start to the day.

Scott really loves how you can see the block-like basalt formations in the top right of this image. We saw that type of formation many times. Scott found it to be really beautiful and this image shows it quite well.

We hopped back on the road and stopped next at Bridal Veil Falls. The walk to this falls was a touch longer, but still not very far. These falls were very nice. We spent a little time there taking pictures and simply enjoying the scenery.

Our next schedule stop was Wahkeena Falls. Wahkeena is a very beautiful fall, but Scott felt that the nicely done stone footbridge in front of the falls added a nice touch to the scene. We spent some time enjoying the falls, but were also quite excited to head on toward Fairy Falls.

Scott has some photos of Navajo Falls in Havasupai, AZ which are also a fan-type waterfall. Scott really loved Navajo Falls but felt like he didn’t quite get the photo he wanted. He was hoping to do a better job with Fairy Falls. We really loved hiking through the lush forests, but there was something about this trail that was really spectacular. Maybe it was the stream that we followed. Maybe it was the lighting and the time of day. Regardless of the reason it just seemed very spectacular. Scott tried to capture it with the camera. As usual the camera didn’t do it justice.

We finally made it to Fairy Falls. It was up to par. Scott really loves this type of waterfall and spent plenty of time taking photos while Monica and Milo had a little bit of lunch. Milo was a pretty good trooper and hiked most of the way by himself. He had earned a rest and some lunch. The trail continues onward and upward, but we turned around and headed back to the car.

We decided that we should attempt Multnomah Falls before the Friday before Labor Day traffic. How can you drive through the gorge and not stop at Multanomah Falls? We did take the 1 mile walk up to the top of Multanomah Falls. Scott is right, you should do it once, but it isn’t really as cool as you would hope. Instead of heading directly back to the car we took the fork in the trail and continued on to Weisendanger Falls. It is a nice little fall. By that time it was getting later in the day, the troops were tired, and we wanted to eat dinner and get our camp set up, so we turned around at Weisendanger Falls. The rest of the trail up toward Larch Mountain is certainly worth exploring and will be put on our list for future trips.

In order to be close to the gorge and have a reservation (on what we figured would be a busy weekend) we decided to stay at the KOA in Cascade Locks. From the minute we entered Cascade Locks we were unimpressed. We tried several places to eat and none seemed appealing. That is pretty abnormal for us. We usually aren’t too picky about where we eat, but Scott just didn’t like the options or atmosphere anywhere in Cascade Locks. We finally settled on the Cascade Locks Restaurant and Lounge. It was horrible and it wasn’t great. The really bad part was the cigarette smoke that filtered in from the bar to the restaurant…

Suffice it to say that dinner was the high point of the night… The tent area was small with very small, crowded campsites. They had 1 set of bathrooms for the entire campground and they were farther away than we would have liked from our campsite. It was dusty and pine needles were falling everywhere from the pine trees. To top it all off, trains run down both sides of the gorge and it seemed like this campground was super close to at least one set of train tracks. Scott swears that a train passed at least every 45 minutes (and sometimes every 20 minutes) all night. Neither Scott or Monica slept well that night. Scott was in such a grouchy mood that when some poor lady’s dog jumped up on him he just kicked it off (not too hard). The owner wasn’t too happy, but only grumbled under her breath…luckily for everyone involved…

This was probably the best day of the whole trip. We all seemed to enjoy it. After we got camp taken down, we headed straight for the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We were all very anxious. They sell ice cream, fudge and cheese, among other things. Scott and Monica both remember having cheese curds as children and wanted Milo to experience them as well. We got a couple packages of cheese curd, milk chocolate fudge, mint fudge, and ice cream cones. There is nothing like having a really good ice cream cone at 9am. Everyone was glad we made the stop.

Our next destination was Ecola State Park where we went on a 1.25 mile hike down to Crescent Beach. This is a beach that Scott remembers going to when he was younger with his cousins from Portland. He remembers when the trail was short and down the side of the mountain. That trail has had erosion problems and there is a new trail. The new trail takes you through a beautiful forest and down to the beach via a very different route. The sign at the beginning of the trail states that the trail is steep, narrow and that only experienced hikers should go on it. Monica was a little nervous about it, but Scott assured her that we would turn around if necessary.

The hike through the forest was beautiful and provides spectacular views of Crescent Beach as well as Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach to the south. It was fun to see the sun come through the trees and to see the dew on everything. Milo hiked the entire way. We were impressed and Scott’s shoulders were happy. The trail wasn’t too treacherous although sections are steep and could prove tricky if the trail had been muddy. The beach itself is absolutely beautiful.

We did plan to be at the beach around low tide as Scott remembers some nice tidepools. We were able to go over by some huge rocks and see some starfish and anemones. They were awesome. While we were walking along the beach, Monica noticed that there were a huge number of sand dollars, some whole, some not so whole, some small, some big. She has always been fascinated with sand dollars. She continued to spend a while looking for sand dollars. Milo, however, was still afraid of the waves and therefore wanted to be further away from the water. This mean that he sat and played in the wet sand while Mom and Dad played around in the ocean. We did find some more star fish and anemones in the water and coaxed Milo back into the water for a few minutes. He likes to call star fish “gold fish stars.” After a couple of hours on the beach, we found a nice bunch of rocks to sit on for lunch. Lunch consisted of the cheese curd and fudge that Scott has tossed into his backpack before leaving the car. We know it isn’t a very nutritional lunch, but it sure tasted good and boy did it make for a great day at Crescent Beach.

Scott finds it amusing to take pictures of the many different places we change Milo’s diaper. They don’t often make the blog, but they will serve to make a very embarrassing slideshow for him later in life Scott is sure.

Scott noticed what looked like deer tracks in the sand on the beach. Monica tried to convince him that they were just big birds, but he didn’t buy it. Scott later found the Ecola State Park host and asked him about the tracks. He said that they have elk in the area, but not deer. Scott wonders what the elk would be doing on the beach. Does anyone know?

While we were enjoying our time at Crescent Beach, we noticed off in the distance to our right, the Tillamook Head lighthouse. This is another lighthouse that is out in the ocean. It was an awesome sight. We got a lot of great pictures in this area. After we were done, we decided that it was one of our most favorite areas and we’d love to go back again. When we think of the ocean, we will think of Crescent Beach.

Our next destination was Astoria to get an early dinner. Monica had decided that we should just be done for the day, but Milo insisted that we go see the Astoria Column. We went to go see it for him. It wasn’t very exciting to Monica, but Milo even insisted that we go up the stairs and look at the view. It was a good view. Milo called it a lighthouse. It looked somewhat like a lighthouse, except that it didn’t have the light at the top.

That night we camped at Fort Stevens. After setting up our camp, we decided to go to the beach and see the Peter Iredale shipwreck for sunset. Scott wanted to be out there early to stake out his spot for sunset, so Monica and Milo passed the time building a sand mountain which they eventually dubbed Mount Milo. Since it wasn’t foggy and we had a decent set of clouds, it made for a beautiful sunset. The best sunset of the trip. It did get rather chilly, but it was beautiful. We stayed there a while after sunset and enjoyed seeing the beauty of it. It was a great end to a fabulous day.

The little figure on the right of this image is Milo.

We had heard that we would be getting rain on Tuesday morning. The weatherman was actually right. We did indeed get rain. Luckily, it didn’t last too long. Unfortunately it did rain while we were trying to take down the tent. It just made for a wet and muddy start to the day.

While Scott and Milo were waiting for Monica to finish getting ready for the day, they decided to go to the beach to see sunrise. It was spectacular, so they had to go back and get the camera to take a few pictures.

On our way out of Waldport we stopped by to photograph the Alsea Bay Bridge. It was originally designed by McCullough, but fell into disrepair and was destroyed and rebuilt…although with McCullough’s style in mind.

We had told Milo that we were going to go to an aquarium to see some sharks a few weeks before we left California. He kept asking about when we’d be doing that. We felt that we had to stop at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, even if it was just for him…which it wasn’t. Scott really wanted to see the puffins and always loves to see jellyfish. We started walking around the aquarium and Milo told us he wanted to see the sharks. Once we finally found them, he was mesmerized. He kept saying, “Dad, look! Way big shark!” He was always careful to point out the biggest sharks. We stayed there for what seemed like an eternity…it was probably only about 10-15 minutes though. Afterward we went and saw the sea lions, starfish, jellyfish and birds. They had some great animals. Scott particularly like the tufted puffins. He was excited to see that we had come at a time when their tufts were in place as they don’t have them year round apparently.

They had a diver cleaning one of the tanks, and Milo insisted on watching her clean the tank. We watched that for a good 15 minutes. Scott and Monica took turns hanging out with Milo. One would go look around while the other would stay with Milo. Crazy kid. We did go back to the shark exhibit, and Milo watched the sharks again. We finally convinced Milo it was time to leave. Some of the exhibits were outside, so we were glad that it wasn’t raining too much anymore. Compared to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium the Oregon Coast Aquarium is smaller, but we liked the way the exhibits were presented at the Oregon Coast Aquarium better. It just seemed like you could see and interact with the animals better.

As we were getting ready to leave, Milo saw another kid getting a penny squished and asked to do it as well. We decided that it would be worth the 50 cents to do it for him. He enjoyed it and we ended up with a penny squished with a shark on it. He kept asking about it for a couple of days. Milo thought it was great!

We continued on to see the Yaquina Bay lighthouse and bridge. The lighthouse is a short one that is inland pretty far. It was only used for about 3 years, because the ships couldn’t see the light. It was at that point that the Yaquina Head lighthouse was built. The Yaquina Bay lighthouse was a house-style lighthouse. It was nice, but we were anxious to see was the taller Yaquina Head lighthouse.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse was restored earlier this year. It was a beautiful looking lighthouse. We weren’t able to go up the stairs, because they have a height limit for children (42 inches). Milo was just a bit too short, and they won’t let you carry him. As such, we opted to pass going up the stairs this time. We spent a bit of time taking pictures of it and looking around. We also went down to the beach area (which instead of sand, it has black pebbles that make a really cool noise as the water moves over them). We didn’t come at the right time to see any tide pools, but it was fun anyway. Monica thinks that of the lighthouses she’s seen, this one has to be the best looking one. It has some great meadows around it and it looked nice.

We realized that we didn’t have much distance to cover this day, so we added on the Three Capes Loop drive. We realized that we’d have to go on a little bit of a drive to get there. We were trying to get to the Cape Meares lighthouse before it closed. We were unsuccessful in that attempt because Scott literally fell asleep and made a mistake in navigation when Monica woke him up to ask which direction to go. Upon arrival we knew we were too late for the tour, but decided to take the short walk down to the lighthouse anyway. The Cape Meares lighthouse is a short, squatty lighthouse, but it is really beautiful. The tour looks pretty cool, as we saw people were up in the lantern room. We did enjoy seeing it and will have to go back for a tour.

Scott had read some very good things about Cape Kiwanda, so we decided that we’d stop. It ended up being a really boring and not very exciting tourist beach. Scott was quite disappointed.

We camped this night at Beverly Beach. We had to take a little drive to go see the beach (we could have easily walked 15 minutes, but we are lazy), but it was definitely worth it and a lot of fun. They fog was gone and so we had a pretty good sunset. We had to leave a little early because Milo had ran out to see Scott (we were sitting quite a way inland from the waves), and on the way back Milo fell in a huge ocean puddle. He was wet and cold. We left and got him changed.

Since we had spent all summer in our Chacos and had some great Chaco tan lines, we decided to take a picture.

We did make the mistake of telling him the next day we were going to get ice cream and in the middle of the night we heard him cry out for ice cream. It was hilarious.

After we got our camp cleaned up, we started off on another fun filled day. Our first destination was to see the Cape Arago lighthouse viewpoint. This is a lighthouse that is not open to the public as it is privately owned. It was foggy, and we could barely see it. It was very cool though. Scott also took a few pictures of some interesting sea stacks in the area. This was a beautiful section of the coast even in the fog.

Our next destination was the botanical gardens at Shore Acres State Park. Inside the garden, you are able to see the Simpson estate and the garden. We were the only people there. The garden was a lot of fun. They have some very cool plants. We enjoyed seeing the roses. There was a lot of mist on everything and that made it just that much more beautiful. We also were able to go and see the ocean from the garden. Milo enjoyed looking at the water fountain and went back to it several times.

After this stop, we continued on to the Conde B. McCullough memorial bridge (Coos Bay Bridge). You go down a separate road to view this bridge. It was a nice one.

We then headed to see the Umpqua River lighthouse. Scott took several pictures of the lighthouse. We then realized that you had to walk a few hundred yards and register to go on a tour of it. We ended up waiting for about 20 minutes, but it was worth it. The three of us were the only ones to go on the tour. That was cool, because we could ask all the questions we wanted. This lighthouse had some red glass in the lantern. We were told to get the red glass, you add a little bit of gold to it. It was very nice.

Just after entering Florence, we were wanting to take a picture of the Suislaw River Bridge which is probably the most interesting bridge we saw on our trip. We tried several different spots, but ended up not being able to get a good view of it. Scott settled on taking pictures of the boats on the dock. Disappointment yet again…

We continued on to the Heceta Head lighthouse viewpoint. When we were approaching it, it was foggy and we realized that we wouldn’t be able to see it. We were very disappointed. We talked to a guy who was going to “wait it out.” We kind of laughed at him as we got in the car and continued on and go tour the lighthouse. After the tour of the lighthouse, we realized that the fog had lifted. If we went back to the viewpoint, then we would be able to see the lighthouse. This is the “classic” view of Heceta Head. We were very glad that we went back. True to his word the fellow we had met before was there taking advantage of the clearing fog (in fact Monica and Milo are looking at him and not Scott’s camera in the photo).

The last stop for the day was Cape Perpetua. There were several trails to hike. Right before arriving, Milo fell asleep. Monica told Scott to go and look around. Monica stayed with the sleeping Milo in the car. Scott ended up out at the ocean and even tried to take a few self portraits.

We camped at a state park called Beachside. It has that name, because you are basically camping on the beach. We had a campsite that was “far” from the beach and it only took us a minute or two to walk to the beach. We went out to see sunset, but it was still mostly foggy and cold. We ended up coming back early and going to bed.

On Sunday morning, we decided that we’d go to part of church. We went to a ward that started at 9 a.m. It was a good meeting. After we were done with church, we went back to the motel and changed our clothes…and managed to get everything back in the car.

We took off and headed up toward the Redwoods. It was foggy and cold that morning. Scott was hoping for some fog in the Redwood Forest, but the forest was a bit too far away from the coast and the fog had already burned off. We decided to stop at the Lady Bird Johnson grove in Redwood National Park. It was a nice little 1 mile loop hike. We had fun doing going on that hike. Milo enjoyed getting out to walk and run a bit.

We had on our list to see the Battery Point Lighthouse. You can only access the lighthouse during low tide. Monica had called ahead to find out when low tide was on the day we would be there. We found out that the lighthouse would be closed that day. We didn’t get to go out and see it. It looked spectacular from road, and we decided it was a must stop if we are ever traveling through that area again.

The famous Oregon bridge builder Conde B. McCullough designed and supervised the building of many bridges along the Oregon coast. We decided that we would try to stop and see many of them. The Thomas Creek Bridge was the first bridge on our list, so we stopped and parked in the signed pull-out (The signage in Oregon is quite good. The signage in California is quite poor…if anyone cares). We went on a little hike to try and find it, but ended up not being able to see it due to the fog…or we didn’t find the trail that leads to the bridge. The coastal forest in the fog was rather spectacular so the little hike wasn’t a complete failure.

We also stopped to see the Cape Sebastian viewpoint which was billed by one book as one of the best views along the Oregon coast. Visibility was about 100 feet or so due to the fog. Very disappointing.

The fog can also be good. We stopped by the Rogue River Bridge which was just beautiful in the fog. The boats on the river floated along in the eery fog. Good stuff!

We wanted to stop and see the Cape Blanco lighthouse, but we realized that they were already closed for the day. We thought we’d gamble and go down to the road in hopes we could at least see it. We arrived and there was a gate and a sign that said that you would be trespassing if we went past the gate. The other problem was that it was foggy, so there was no way we could see the lighthouse. We decided it was best to just go on and try and see this lighthouse another time. We were very disappointed.

We continued on in hopes that we could see the Coquille River Bridge and Lighthouse. This time we were able to see the lighthouse even though it was closed. It was very beautiful with the fog surrounding it and such. Milo enjoyed playing in the sand. He played for a while while Scott and Monica looked at the lighthouse. We all had a great time, but decided to head to our campground, Bullards Beach, because it was foggy and cold. On our way there Scott made us stop so he could photograph the Coquille River Bridge. It isn’t the prettiest bridge, but it isn’t horrible either.

That night we camped at Bullards Beach State Park. It was a nice campground. We liked it because they had trees and bushes between each campsite. We went to bed early that night as we were tired. Milo gets really excited when we sleep in the tent. He loves to help put it up and then run and jump on the “soft” sleeping bags. We did manage to get him calmed down and sleeping without too much trouble.