Another random road-side picture is of the electrical poles that are close to the coast. It looks like sand and water aren't a good base for a sturdy pole in this area that also gets a lot of wind. So they have to add more wooden supports at the base of the pole, and cable wires from another point on the ground to help stabilize them.
We decided to park the motor home part-way through this day's drive, and do some sight-seeing along the way. We unhooked the car so we could drive to several places that were half-way between our last stop in Bandon and tonight's stop in Florence, Oregon. In the car, we stopped in at Umpqua River Lighthouse for a quick picture. If anyone is keeping track, that is lighthouse #4 on the Oregon coast.
Across the street from the lighthouse is a good whale-viewing platform. We read all the sign boards that describe where to look, and what whale behavior we should see. The mothers and calves should definitely be out there in that water, but they are hiding from us. We were skunked again with no whale sightings.
Our next stop was more successful--Dean Creek Elk Viewing Center. We whizzed by a herd close to the highway, but there was no place to stop to take a picture. The nice viewing sites had elk, but they were too far away for a good picture. But we promise--they were there. Mark thought the Mountain-Dew-colored Dean Creek that ran through the meadow was more picturesque anyway.
So after chasing whales and elk, the best wildlife picture we could include today were the beautiful swallows that are nesting at the elk-viewing wayside. This guy patiently grasped that cattail stem, posing until the picture was taken.
We got back to the motor home and headed to our next stop for two nights. We will be calling the Three Rivers Casino parking lot home while we are exploring the next section of the Oregon coast. The location is good and the price is right (free). Besides, they gave us free-play money that we turned into enough cash to over-eat at the buffet that evening. We haven't gorged ourselves at an all-you-can-eat buffet in over two years. It was delicious, but we both vowed never to do that again.
We like our new little home-town of Florence, Oregon. It has a boardwalk and dock on the river that makes for a good evening stroll.
A few miles down the road is an interesting stop. Darlingtonia State Natural Site has a short path to a bog that is home to a whole garden of carnivorous plants. How these plants catch their supper is something straight out of a horror film.
The plants grow a rotten-smelling bloom that insects find irresistible.
But it's a one-way trip when they buzz into these bulbous tubes. They are trapped inside and will soon fall down the glassy smooth tube. Then the live bug will find himself at the base of the plant where downward pointing hairs force him into a pool of digestive liquid. We told you it was a grizzly way to go!
Florence is also just a few miles from Cape Creek, and another of of the handsome bridges found on the Oregon coast. Most of these bridges were engineered by Conde McCullough, famous among people that know more about bridges than we do.
The reason most people visit this beach is to see the Heceta Head Lighthouse. Yes, this is lighthouse number 5 in our Oregon journey. It sends out the strongest beam of light among all of those.
We took this picture from a very foggy viewpoint to capture the 1,000 foot-tall head that the Heceta light was built upon. The brochure said that postcard pictures of the lighthouse are taken from there. But we're thinking those were taken on a little clearer day than we were enjoying.
Because we like to go to beaches every day, we also drove out to see the stretch of ocean surrounding our little town of Florence. From the parking area, it's a steep climb over the dune to get to the water.
We've been to some beautiful beaches in Oregon, decorated with boulders and sea stacks. Others are at the foot of a mountain, or have rocky coves. But this slice of the coast is absolutely flat without ornamentation.
As far as we could see (in the fog) was more flat beach. We came here to walk after we ate too much food at our second trip to the buffet. We obviously broke the vow we made yesterday to never eat at another buffet. A kind stranger gave us a coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free meal, and we couldn't let it go to waste with prime rib on the menu.
It was a rather creepy walk in the fog on a deserted beach that stretched on for miles. It's the first time we've seen vultures congregating on the beach.
They were doing their job of cleaning up the carcass of a dead sea lion that had washed up on the beach.
The other creepy sighting on this beach were a couple of sand lug worms. We've never seen them before, but Mark googled for more information. They are found on the west coast from Alaska to California, and more specifically they live in mucus-lined tunnels. They make good fishing bait, but they have strong jaws with teeth that can give a nasty bite. Some species can grow up to 35 inches long, but these ten-inch worms we saw were creepy enough for us.
We have found almost no shells on the west coast beaches, but today we found a few. We also found two pieces of agate, and a couple other pretty stones that got into the "best of the day" beach picture.
We found only a single complete sand dollar, and even it had a few cracks on its top. All the rest of the sand dollars on the beach were broken into pieces. Since this is a sand dollar and a half, Denisa figures that is about $1.50 in sand currency.
You might notice that our pictures around Florence are gray and foggy. Oregon is enjoying another stretch of rainy weather. We claim we like to learn about a new section of the country and live like the locals. But we can tell you that the locals are even complaining about the amount of rain this year.
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