Exploring the coast

Day 56, May 27, 1997

Reedsport - Waldsport, east to Eugene

227 km

It was still raining when we got up. We packed up wet and headed north, up the coast beyond the dunes. We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves, but quickly rejected the private enterprise as anything we would be interested in. We drove up the coast, stopping to explore the beach.

We discovered Devil's Churn. It had wonderful tide pools and the gulch was an awesome display of the power of the waves. The water has carved a small, narrow inlet in the rock. Waves come rushing in, crashing into the rock walls and falling back out toward the sea, where waves travelling in different directions combine and crash into different walls at new angles. Water continually moved, slamming into the walls of the chasm, throwing spray. The right combination of speed, volume, and angle creates huge splashes of water at least 20 feet high.

We turned around at Waldsport--the view travelling south is tremendously better. Driving on the outside edge of the road and looking in a different direction made a huge difference. As well, we were able to stop at view points that were inaccessible from the north-bound lane.

After treating ourselves to dinner out, we headed inland for Eugene. We camped about an hour outside of the city, sleeping in the van so that we didn't have to pitch our tent in the rain. We were close enough to the city to arrive early to do van maintenance before picking Erica up.

Ralph in Oregon