Day 14: 9/29/2010
Honeyman State Park, OR-Crescent City ish, 212.9 miles
http://goo.gl/maps/vxSN

In the morning we used one of the most awesome parts of Honeyman State Park... Showers! Though apparently this is more common down here than in Alaska. When we left Alaska and Canada I told Mathew we could go faster because I wouldn't have the Milepost to tell me what fabulous things we had to stop and see... Enter Oregon Coast Mile by Mile Magazine :p It's not as good as the Milepost though, so it didn't slow us down nearly as much. It did tell us about lighthouses and bridges though!

On both days we've travelled Highway 101, Mathew and I have both loved the bridges! They're gorgeous, most of them have amazing arches and great columns on either end. Those ones were all designed by a man named Conde McCullough in the 1930's. I think only one of them was ever replaced, the rest are still up!

We saw many more great coastal views, and this time we got to tour through two lighthouses! Only one is still working, the other doesn't have a lamp anymore. First was the Umpqua Bay Lighthouse. The tour guides are all volunteers, and it started in an old Coast Guard building turned museum. They told the history of the lighthouse, it used to be run my the Lighthouse Agency... or something :p And then all the lighthouses were taken over by the Coast Guard. Even though this is a working lighthouse we were allowed to go all the way upstairs in it, and even stand inside the lamp! There was a step on the ladder painted red, and that was as high as we were allowed to go. The lamp is really pretty, all different reds and whites. It has to turn 24/7 or it will flatten the wheels it turns on! A really interesting fact we learned is that they used better and brighter lights as time went on not to be seen further at sea, but to compensate for more and more background light from towns and cities.

The other lighthouse we got to tour through was real, but the lamp is gone. It wasn't so much a tour, just a little museum set up downstairs and then you could go up the stairs... and ladder... to see where the lamp used to be. If the glass windows were still there it would have been nice views, but instead it's been replaced with plexiglass. Still kind of neat views though, it almost just looked foggy. Almost. Remind me sometime that going up a ladder means going down it as well! Outside there was a great beach area we stayed in for a bit. At one point Mathew walked inland while I walked toward the ocean, and a few seconds later I was making a run for him when the waves came closer than expected. Very fun!

For lunch we went to Seafood Restaurant 2 in one of the towns... apparently Seafood Restaurant was already named when this one opened up :p Next door was a gallery I just wanted to glance in before lunch... Ha. There was a really interesting man in there who saw a visitor with a camera and so we talked for a bit until I made an escape because Mathew was waiting. The man has a 4x5 SLR camera I wish I could have seen though!

Cape Blanco is another place with a lighthouse and an old manor house, but we arrived too late for tours. We saw the house from outside and the highlight was near the lighthouse (we couldn't drive close to it). In the parking area I got out to take some photos and nearly got blown over! So fun. Mathew was staying in the car, and when I started down a little trail from the bluff, he had to come out because I didn't realize how much it looked like I was going down a cliff! Oops... Very nice walk, and not nearly as windy down the bluff as on top.

Before finding a camping place, we crossed the Thomas Creek Bridge, which is the highest bridge Oregon, and stopped south of it to walk to a viewpoint... which turned out to be a terrible viewpoint :p You could just see the bridge through the trees. But It was a fairly nice trail to walk throhgh the trees, and you could just see the beach sometimes. Mathew rescued me on the way back with "don't look down, just take a big step." Finally... somebody who will save me from the s word and not tease me about it... at least until later. Yay :-)

We planned to camp at Tolowa Dunes State Park north of Crescent City... Don't ever try to find that place :p Apparently there is no camping, and the "coastal" route to get to it was backroads followed by dirt roads followed by hugely rutted dirt roads (this coming from an Alaskan). Really funny and amusing, but about a 40 minute detour followed by a lack of camping sites. We headed south of Crescent City for Del Norte Park instead... before realizing the tent symbol on the map was north of Del Norte... Eventually we found the Orman Guest Ranch and camping area! We got there just in time before the host went to bed, met a cat who did not win a possum fight but was still very sweet, and then followed the directions of "follow that road around until it ends and then keep driving to the trees" to find our campsite! It was a pretty nice place... Once you ignored the fog horn, tree frogs, and farm animals! Luckily, the farm animals were pretty quiet. At night anyway.