More than I’ll ever need to know about lighthouses

Waldport, OR

Today seemed rather unproductive but was fun. I guess since I’m retired that it doesn’t matter that I have those days from time to time.

My wandering took me south along Highway 101 this morning, starting out with partial cloud as you’ll see from the pictures. A little way down the coast is the small town of Yachats, which is primarily a tourist town with cute shops and eateries. After poking around there, I continued down the coast to the Perpetua Scenic Area.

There were more beautiful wide beaches along the way, but the area gets quite rocky and rugged in the Perpetua area as you’ll see from the pictures of Cook’s Chasm and Devil’s Churn. It was relatively calm today so the surf wasn’t that impressive, but you always have a sense of how much more powerful it could be at times. In addition to Kodak moments there are a pile of paths and trails, some that are asphalt and some more rugged in the Perpetual area along with picnic areas, and campgrounds. I spent quite a lot of time hiking around the area.

Just a hint for anyone coming this way, the most popular of the State Parks (Cape Perpetual, Yaquina Head area and others) have “day use fees” which are not expensive ($5 or $7) but they add up. At this time of year they don’t have anyone there collecting them so you have to use the honour system and put the cash (or cheque! – does anyone still use those?) in a little envelope, fill out a form and put the stub on the dash of your car, which is a bit of a hassle. What I discovered today is that you can buy a vehicle passport that the Oregon Parks department sells. You can get either an annual pass for $35 or a 5-day pass for $10. Google “Oregon Pacific Coast Passport” to get more info. Makes good sense.

Just a short while down the winding road was Hecata Head Lighthouse State Park. (yes another $5 fee). The lighthouse is a bit of a walk (yes, mostly up) from the parking lot, but it is well worth the trip. The lighthouse is 56 feet high and it sits on an area at 205 feet above sea level that they dug into the headland to make it the correct height for ships to see the light 21 miles out. They have volunteers giving tours of the lighthouse, which has been restored in recent years, and I learned more today about lighthouses than I’ve ever known. I was glad to have the diversion to wait for the sun to break through the clouds to enable me to get better pictures of the lighthouse. Our volunteer was ex-navy and he told us about lighthouse, the use of the lighthouse by the navy during the second world war, and the restoration work that had been done.

One of the unique things about this lighthouse is that because they dug the building site out of the side of the headland, you can actually get above the lighthouse by taking a path up the side of the hill. (yes more climbing).

The light keeper’s house is now a popular B&B.

There hasn’t been too much construction along the way, but after leaving the Hecata Head Lighthouse area, I ran into a couple of areas where we were stopped for up to 15 minutes to be piloted through the construction. They are working on the rock barriers along the winding roads which were build in the 1930s. Unfortunately one of the areas that was inaccessible due to the construction was the area where all the iconic pictures of the Hecata lighthouse across the bay are taken.

Further along where the landscape starts to change into the sand dunes that are the prominent feature for the next 40 miles is the town of Florence, built at the mouth of the Siuslaw River. I tootled around Florence for a while and grabbed some more seafood chowder at a place literally right on the river called Mo’s which is a local small restaurant chain.

Florence was my turnaround point for the day with my intention being to visit the Sea Lion Caves just north of town on my way back to Waldport. Turns out that I was welcome to visit the cave, which I had already done years ago, for a reduced cost and a rain cheque to be used within the year, but I was told that the sea lions are not in residence at the moment! They are still out fattening up for the winter after the breeding season and won’t return to the cave until the end of November. So I headed back home for a nap before dinner.

I headed into Newport for one final look around and a casual dinner before heading back to write this blog and hit the sack.