While in Klamath we drove through an area containing very large coastal redwoods. First, a drive down the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway where we saw several incredibly large trees right on the roadway. Then, a drive to the Lady Bird Johnson grove, for a mile hike through a beautiful forest of ferns and more really, really large trees.
There aren’t really words to describe the size and majesty of these ancient, huge trees. I did write a haiku (click here to see it). Here are pictures we took:
We’re in Klamath this week and not too far from the beach where the mouth of the Klamath River empties into the ocean. We drove to a beach where there were lots of cars parked along the road and walked out to the waters edge (over 1/2 mile in the sand, that was a workout!) and were astounded to see that people were not swimming or surfing…they were all salmon fishing. Probably a hundred people lined up along the shore of the river – every few minutes one would get a bite and pull in a 20-30 pound salmon! They were HUGE! The best part was the sea lions, seals, pelicans and seagulls right at the mouth in the surf – the seals, pelicans and sea lions were also fishing for salmon and steelhead trout and the seagulls were fighting over the guts whenever someone caught a fish. Many of the fishermen were from the local Yurok tribe and they would gut the fish right on the beach and toss the guts to the birds and bury the fish in the sand to keep it from spoiling in the sun. We learned that the salmon were heading upstream but the river is too warm this time of year so they would head back. There were also two Fish and Game people at the entrance to where people were parked, and they would measure the fish (many were 35-40 inches long!) and scrape some scales and write down the person’s zip code that caught it. No checking of licenses. I asked what the scales were for and was told salmon scales have age rings just like trees, so they are able to determine the age of the salmon that are caught.
Interesting!
We had dinner one night while at Klamath and went to a local place called the “Forest Café”. I didn’t read the reviews on this restaurant before we went, and I wish I had. Most were not very good, and mine added to the not very good category. Blah!
Here’s my review of this restaurant on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/forest-cafe-klamath
While here in Klamath we decided to go out to breakfast. We went to a local place called the “Log Cabin Diner”. It was GREAT! Here’s a link to my review on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/log-cabin-diner-klamath#hrid:p-QY0eAII9tueI54-5GTHw.
Still the body,
Clear the mind
and be at peace with all the universe.
We drove through some beautiful coastal forests yesterday and I put on my headsets to listen to some “new age” music that I love. Even though I was looking around at the forest and keeping half an eye on the road I felt I was drifting into a meditative state and this one just popped into my mind.
The weather report said that today would be partly cloudy, which we took to mean party sunny, so we took a chance and drove up the coast to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, 50 miles to the north of us. We drove up Hwy 101 to get there early and avoid the crowds we heard about, and drove back along the coast to see the sights.
The cheese factory was interesting, although there wasn’t a guided tour and the self-guided tour was quite short. The highlight was the samples of different cheese that were free and the ice cream which wasn’t free but was really good!
Our drive down the coast didn’t work out too well due to the fog. Also, the road through one area that we wanted to see was closed and we had to take a detour that wasn’t right on the coast. It was way too foggy to see much of anything! Here are a few pictures:
Travelling is fun,
but thoughts often turn to family –
We miss you!
Yesterday it was a little less foggy than it’s been all week, so we took a drive south along the coast to see what we could see. The coast along here in Oregon is rocky cliffs, but in several places there are beaches at the foot of the cliffs.
We saw rocks literally covered in cormorants, but no whales or seals or otters. Otters used to be plentiful around here but no one sees them anymore.
We saw one area at low time where a lot of people were clamming, which was interesting to watch.
We stopped at the Yaquina Head lighthouse. It’s not a working lighthouse, although I was surprised at that because of the heavy fog in this area. You can’t go into the lighthouse except on a tour, but we were able to walk around it and look down at the water from the cliffs. Thank goodness there were good fences along the edge, because it was a sheer drop-off! As we walked back to our car from the lighthouse, the fog which had been a short distance out into the ocean moved in, by the time we pulled out of the parking lot you couldn’t even see the lighthouse anymore!
With the fog getting so heavy, we headed back home. Hopefully in a day or two the fog will clear more and we’ll be able to see more of the coastline. Here are some pictures:
I’m taking a walk every day and a couple of days I walked along Hiway 101 (too foggy to walk into the next-door state park which is very densely forested). There are LOTS of raspberries bushes just growing wild along the road and quite a few have ripe berries on them. Here’s a picture:
Foggy.
Can’t see treetops.
Want to see the ocean –
maybe tomorrow.
