South Jetty adventures began with the drive getting there!
Aug 10
Barry really got his turn at tight curves, narrow roads, etc. today. I’m so glad I agreed he should go ahead and drive again today. Selfishly, I THOUGHT I’d have some quality time to catch up on the writing of a blog post or two…wrong. The views during the drive were pretty spectacular, so instead, I took pictures and videos along the way. Below are some that I captured. It was a beautiful day for such a scenic drive!
Views from Depot Bay
The stressful part came with our spur of the moment decision to pull off on what we thought was just a scenic turnout. This was not the typical pullout that we saw. I told Barry it looked like we were now on a smaller road without a way directly back onto the 101. It was a narrow, one-way road with super tight turns! When we stopped at the scenic turnout I saw a Park ranger truck, so I ran after it to ask how to get back to 101 S. He said to continue as we were to the bottom of the hill, and we’d see a sign to 101 S. He told me we were the largest rig he had ever seen on this road. He also reassured me that since we made it OK on the one-way part we wouldn’t have any trouble with the rest of it. Whew! And like that, we were back on 101 south.
Almost to Florence, Oregon
We arrived safely at South Jetty Thousand Trails in Florence, Oregon. Being another “first come, first served” Thousand Trails, and being the beginning of the weekend, sites were not readily available, let alone ones that were deep and wide enough for us. Our site: (Thought I took one from the front, but I obviously didn’t.)
Green space behind the motorhome.
There wasn’t currently any pickleball, but will by next week! A permanent pickleball court is going in right by the pool. It just wasn’t finished while we were there. 🙁 The pool looked nice, but the hot tubs were quite small! Good thing there were two of them.
The NEW Pickleball court
That evening we set out in the Jeep to explore near the beach. The area was the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area – South Jetty
VIDEO: ATV on the Oregon Dunes
We went on down the road to the parking lot for foot access to the beach. It was quite the hike up the soft sand path, and boy, was it windy!!
VIDEO: Barry and I choose different ways to get back down the soft sand hill path to the Jeep.
SEA LION CAVES – We enjoyed a visit to the Sea Lion Caves.
These caves are the only known mainland home of Steller (northern) sea lions. The sea lions move into the cave for protection against weather and rough seas during fall and winter. In spring and summer they tend to lounge more on the outside rock ledges. This is also where breeding and birthing take place. Bulls take charge of 20-30 cows during breeding season. The strongest bulls may swim 4000 miles to winter along the Alaska coast and return in the spring to breed.
California sea lion bulls show up in the caves late summer to stay for the winter. They return to California in the spring for breeding season.
VIDEO: Sea Lions
Are seals and sea lions the same?
OUTSIDE LOOKOUT:
Why is there so much sea life including sea lions, various whales and dolphins along the coast of California and Oregon? It’s called “upwelling” and has to do with an underwater “river” called the California Current, and the “upwelling” that occurs.
The Heceta Lighthouse could be seen from the Sea Lion Caves. Since it was so close, we drove over to check it out. Since the Caves were enough for Barry’s back, I explored the trail up to the lighthouse by myself.
Views of the day use beach area at the parking lot to hike to the lighthouse.
The lighthouse flashes its one million candle power beacon every ten seconds, and can be seen as far as 21 miles at sea. It was built in 1894 and maintained by the US Coast Guard.
Fuel houses – stored six months of fuel for the original lighthouse lamp.
Viewing along the trail:
Our last evening at South Jetty TT/Florence, Oregon.
I am so glad you were able to get back onto the 101 without any accidents, I am sure it was nerve wracking.Beautiful pictures.
Thank you. Yes, we were glad for at least not worrying about anyone come towards us when it was a one-way road. Never sure though it you’re going to end up with a turn you can’t make or have to somehow turn around. A major headache with a large rig + tow vehicle. The Lord was with us for sure. 🙂