The Low and High of Cape Perpetua

Cape Perpetua is the area of the coast that is exactly half-way between Florence and Newport, Oregon on Highway 101. There are several natural attractions at Cape Perpetua, so we actually ended up visiting twice. Our first trip was during low tide, so that was a good time to see the uncovered tide pools. It was sprinkling that day, but the sea creatures didn't mind it while we looked into the salt water pools.

The purple urchins were particularly bright, and this one had a layer of red to it as well.

The only thing that was a brighter purple was this wild iris. It was enjoying the rain as well.

We hiked down to the Devil's Churn in our rain gear. We can confirm that nothing was churning at low tide.

But that made us more interested in seeing it at high tide. So we made the trip back on a beautiful blue sky day from Newport. We must say that the Devil's Churn was in business at high tide, and it doesn't even look like the picture above, even though they were taken at the same place.

The main natural attraction here at Cape Perpetua is something called Thor's Well. It is sometimes called a "gaping sinkhole" or a dark term like "the gate to hell." We were looking forward to seeing it at high tide, and it was putting on quite a show.

The water was spouting high out of Thor's Well at times, and at other times the turbulent white water was just bubbling to the top of the hole.

Then the water would drain out from the bottom of Thor's Well, even quicker than it re-filled.

We were able to stand very close to the well and listen to the boom as the water exploded from the bottom of the well.

When we were there at low tide on the first trip, we could walk right beside a very quiet Thor's Well and look inside.

It is actually a bowl-shaped hole carved out of the rocky shore line. Because there is a hole at the bottom and the top, it can put on some pretty neat shows at high tide. But at low tide, it's simply a open-air sea cave where we could watch the tides roll in harmlessly.

The other natural feature is Cook's Chasm and the Spouting Horn. The Rocky Shoreline is beautiful even on a foggy low tide day, but there was nothing spouting when we were there on our first visit.

At high tide, we did see some spouts. That happens when the tide surges are forced into a tiny opening. That opening is close to the log in the pictures above and below. The only outlet is that spout opening, where water shoots straight into the air. It's hard to catch with a camera, but we did get a little misty spout in the picture below.

But the most fun we had was scrambling down deep into Cook's Chasm. Here the big waves were hitting the undersides of the rocks and catapulting deeper into the canyon. It resounded over and over into the depths of the chasm and sounded like thunder.

We were the only two people in the canyon, and we thought it was neatest of all the natural features. We renamed this private chasm--Thunder Alley.

The blue skies definitely had something to do with it, but we really enjoyed our time at Cape Perpetua more at high tide.

Without the fog of our first trip, we also took the time to drive to the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean this time. This is one of the tallest overlooks along the west coast, and it was a beautiful place to be on a blue-sky day.

A fellow full-time RVer offered to take a picture of the two of us together on the top of the cliff. We are sitting beside the CCC-built shelter that was used as a lookout for enemy ships and planes during World War II. You can obviously see a very long ways from here at 802 feet above the ocean.

From our perch at the top of the mountain we could clearly see the path that Highway 101 takes as it curves around the coast. We've tried to take pictures through the windshield of the motor home, but this graphically shows its path between the mountains and the sea.

To add to the high today, we also had several whale sightings from our perch on top of that cliff. We decided to try to take pictures this time. The easiest way to spot a whale is to look for a spout in the air. A spout happens when the whale exhales as she comes up for a breath. So very often you will be able to see the whale's back with the spout.

While many of the gray whales are migrating back north to Alaska with their new calves, some will choose to spend their summer here along the Oregon coast. We think that this is a resident whale that we spotted, as she didn't seem to be on the move. Instead, she was feeding in the shallower waters right below us. With binoculars we could even see her muddy mouth as she had just dipped down to the ocean floor to scoop up the tiny creatures that huge whales live on. The ocean is so clear that we could see her entire length still under the water. We were blessed with many more whale sightings!

So now we have seen Cape Perpetua at her lowest low tide in the rain, and her highest high tide basked in sunshine. It was like visiting two different places. But we are reminded that we are blessed to get to wander into His wonders, sometimes more than once.