The Coast

I'm tired tonight, so this will be short. Yesterday Pam & I left SW Montana, crossed the neck of Idaho, went through Spokane, WA, and ended the day near Bend, OR. We left off plans to see the Olympic National Park because the weather forecast was crummy up that way. Western WA & OR are so arrid. It was amusing to see vast stretches of brown dirt/grass only broken up by occasional green patches of irrigation for vegetables, blueberries, and orchards. If it weren't for cheap energy to pump the massive quantities of well water, it would be hard to imagine anyone living there. Today was much mo' fun. The forecast sounded "iffy", but it turned into a beautiful sunny day. We saw miles of lava flows in a national forest outside Redmond, explored the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area south of Eugene to get our first look at the Pacific. The dunes are 30-40' high and go on for maybe 50 miles. After hiking some shoreline trails & getting a days fill of salt air, we moved on to the nights' KOA near Coos Bay. The ladies at the desk told us to be sure and see a nearby state park, & so we immediately headed 30 minutes down the coast to what is really a peninsula in the bay. We didn't know what to expect, but experienced several serendipitous moments. (Pam's word, not mine) What we unexpectedly saw, aside from some spectacular seashore views, was a colony(?), roost(?), gaggle(?) of about 2 dozen sea lions settling in for the night on some offshore rocks. Man are they noisy, but better still!...at a nearby viewing point we arrived at the perfect time to see perhaps dozens of whales (maybe Beleugas? or some other small species) making their way north along the coast. Each was separated from the other by about 100 yards, and they would continuously surface, exposing their heads, & spout water before submerging again for another 20 seconds. We watched for a long time....really, really neat! Click on the pics to enlarge enough to see the whale spouting & the sea lions. Tomorrow,.... what might be my favorite place in all the world.