The Surprises at Cape Blanco!

While we have been staying near Bandon, Oregon, we had planned to drive south to see Cape Blanco Lighthouse. But it's going to be quite a drive, and that's only one thing to see. We asked ourselves, "Is it really worth it?" Now we can officially answer that question with a resounding, "YES!!!" We arrived at Cape Blanco early on a blue-sky day ready to see the lighthouse. But what is that in the air?

This guy is taking advantage of the ocean breezes to soar above the ocean with his paraglider.

We headed to the cliff to get a better view.  When he landed back on his jump-off point, we suddenly had a front row seat to the show!

What a pleasant surprise! We couldn't ask for a better view of paragliding, and this guy was happy to have us so close.

We had a beautiful view down the coast, and having a close-up view of a paraglider is like the icing on top!

With watching all these aerial acrobatics, we had almost forgotten the lighthouse that we had come to see today. There it is, far in the background to the left of the pictures we were taking.

After concentrating on the north cliff, we got our first glimpse of the south cliff. Wow, another great surprise! This beach is dominated by a single sea stack. It's hard to tell just how big that rock is from our perch at the top of the cliff. Luckily, a jeep drove down the beach as we were watching. So that little dot on this side of the sea stack is a full-size jeep.

We met a woman coming up from the beach, and she explained that this morning was one of the lowest of the low tides she has seen. As a local, she has seen this beach many times. But usually this sea stack is surrounded by water. She had never seen it so isolated from the ocean before. Another great surprise! There was no trail to the beach, but we made a muddy sliding scramble to get down there. At beach level, now you can see Denisa in her bright turquoise blouse standing against that massive rock.

A tide like this is called a negative tide, when the water dips to an unusually low level. It exposes things that are seldom out of the water. At the bottom of the sea stack we see this happy group of pink anemone, still covered with salt water.

Right above them is a large group of pink anemone that are not as happy with their dry surroundings this morning. They have rolled up their tentacles in an attempt to stay as protected from the elements as possible.

We're not talking about a handful of dried out anemones, we're talking about hundreds of them squeezed together on the side of that unusually dry rock.

The gooseneck barnacles and mussels are used to being dry at times, and they make a thick carpet on the bottom edges of the rocks. We've seen all this before.

But what we haven't seen very much is the ocre sea stars that are nestled between them.

They don't look like the perfectly spaced 5 point stars that we think of when we say "starfish."

Incidentally, we are trying to retrain ourselves not to call them starfish. The more correct marine term is sea star. It seems that some scientific naming group is trying to teach the rest of the world that these guys aren't fish after all.

The few sea stars we have found in the past were hard to photograph because they were under water. But all these today are hanging on to the sides of sea stacks that are completely dry. In fact, with the negative tide we can walk on dry sand to take pictures of them.

This is a great morning to be at the Cape Blanco beach, and it is a great surprise to have all these tide pools around the sea stacks. We are also enjoying the blue skies that we no longer take for granted here in Oregon.

After sea star overload, we also have to take some pictures of one of the largest green anemones we have ever seen.

Mark also took this picture of some strange-looking green-marbled creatures that looked a little like a fish out of water--but slimier.

Cape Blanco Beach is surrounded by tall stone cliffs, that the welcomed sunshine is lighting up this morning. It's hard to tell just how big that stone wall is, so once again Denisa is on assignment to stand in front of it. If you can't spot her in that turquoise blouse, look in the black opening of the sea cave at the bottom.

We've zoomed in a little further, can you see her now? That is a big stone wall!

We're positive that we made the right decision to come to Cape Blanco on this beautiful morning with a negative tide! But it must be time to quit playing in the tide pools. As we walked back down the beach, the tide is definitely coming in higher. Earlier, we were standing on dry sand all around these big boulders. Now the water is taking over the beach. Our just-photographed sea stars are under water, and much happier with their neighborhood.

While we were walking the beach, we were entertained by the fishing maneuvers of this osprey. These are big birds that use their talons, rather than their beaks, for fishing.

It's not a great picture, because the osprey was plunging through the air at top speed toward the water when we snapped it. He hit the surf with those powerful talons, but came up empty-toed this time.

We've been here for 2.5 hours, so it's probably time to explore the reason we made the drive this morning. The Cape Blanco Lighthouse is looking very noble on its cliff-top setting.

We often take a picture outside, and call that good for a lighthouse visit. But we decided to take the $2 tour and climb to the top of this one. The spiral staircase winds its way to the top of the brick tower.

We got to stand right beside the large fresnel lens that was turning inside the top of the lighthouse. It was almost twice as tall as Denisa, so that is one impressive lens.

The tour guide explained why the light can be seen for so many miles across the ocean. All those layers of glass, are actually prisms that magnify the light and then reflect it to the center of the lens.

The actual light is only a single bulb glowing at the center of the fresnel lens. Of course, during its early working days, that would be a single wick, lit and then fueled by hog lard.

Our blue skies have turned cloudy now, but we learned much from the volunteers that run this park. Just like us, they live in their RVs. But instead of moving around to new sites every day, they are donating their time in exchange for a free camp site here in Oregon.

We were surprised to find there was another structure to tour in this park. There was another volunteer RVer giving tours of the nearby Hughes House. This is where the Hughes family lived while they ran a dairy farm and raised their seven children.

Built in the late 1800's, it has been returned to its original grandeur and opened to the public for free tours. 

We didn't see any dairy cows, but the surrounding fields are full of sheep. That's something we don't see often in our travels.

These guys are still wearing their winter coats. It looks like they are due for a spring shearing.

On the way home we stopped by the tiny town of Langlois. We were intrigued by the sign we saw as we entered town that touted themselves as the "World Famous Langlois." We weren't sure what they were famous for. But one of those RVing volunteers at the lighthouse told us about the hotdogs they sell at the little market in town. A unique dog with house-made mustard and pickle slices, Denisa was surprised to find that it was one of the best hotdogs she had ever eaten. Or maybe it was all the exercise in the salty air that made her so hungry so that anything would taste great. 

We are always amazed at the neat surprises we find. This morning we almost talked ourselves out of making the trip to Cape Blanco. But we are so glad we went! We were blessed with many surprises on another day on the road. We are loving this Oregon coast!