Today was another outstanding day on the road... After a bit of a late start, following an hour long Zoom meeting with a bunch is ESF administration colleagues trying to sort out our Banner implementation (what a mess!), I hit the road at about 8:00am, heading south out of Yachats. I immediately hit the first climb up and around Cape Pupetua. The next 20 miles were nothing short of spectacular, with one gorgeous view after another along cliffs several hundred feet above the surf.
This section is all designated as a scenic coastline, and it's well earned. It's also home to colonies of nesting cormorants and murres. The best part of this section was the light traffic, even though I was right on US 101. Most of the tourists and truckers all seem to be late starters :-). The Cape Pupetua section of highway culminates with views to the Haveta Head lighthouse.
Then the rocky coastline ofcliffs and coves gives way to 50+ miles of windswept dunes all the way to Coos Bay. It's quite a contrast in terms of landscape, and the experience along the highway is very different too. Unfortunately, I lost my tailwind for much of this section as the road moved inland behind the dunes and into deep forest. Still plenty of climbs though, as some dunes were as much as 500' tall!
One of the other interesting things about being anywhere along the Pacific coast in this part of the country is the regular signage warning of tsunami danger.
Accoding to a number of interpretive panels at roadside stops, the coast gets a "big one" roughly every 500 years, with a wall of water 20-30' high flooding inland last occuring about 300 years ago. Hopefully I'll avoid being in the neighborhood for the next one ;-)
For the last 15 miles or so, the highway moved back closer to the coast and I picked up the tailwind again into Coos Bay. I even got lucky enough to have a courteous truck driver follow me at 12 MPH up and over the harbor bridge, where the shoulder essentially disappears.
And at about 3:00pm, I rolled into my AirBnB, and another 70 odd miles behind me.
Tomorrow I'll head to Gold Beach, my last stop in Oregon, and officially pass the half way point of the tour. So far, so good-- Cheers!
Great ocean shots Scott. The Tsunami seems less likely than wildfires in the state right now.
ReplyDeleteYes, although it's cool and damp here on the coast right now. Up here at least I'm not too worried about wildfires. Once I get into California, I'm a bit more concerned, though there's nothing near the coast now thankfully!
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