Day 52: From Newport to Florence, OR on US-101

We wake up pretty early this morning, and leave an hour later after eating breakfast and packing for the day. We stop of course at the Fred Meyer store in Newport, to buy groceries and take advantage of their free Wifi – yes, we discover that – and Red goes to Chase Bank to change her family name.

After running all those errands, we get back on the road and reach Seal Rock SP. The park has large off-shore rock formations, probably inhabited by seals, but we don’t see any. It’s very cloudy and foggy, so it doesn’t help. It is low tide time though, and we wander around the tide pools filled with sea anemones.

 

Back in the RV, we drive to Cape Perpetua. We first look for camping, but we are so confused and the price ends up not being cheap enough, so we just extend our stay at Lake Woahink RV Park by coming one day earlier than planned. To do that, we have to drive back to Yachats to get some cell phone signal. Once it’s done, we go back to Cape Perpetua and start exploring the area. We hike at Devil’s Churn, a very narrow inlet carved into the basalt shoreline, where we can still look at some tide pools. But more impressive is the beautiful spectacle of the waves crashing on the rocks, and sometimes exploding as incoming and outgoing waves collide.

 

 

After lunch, we continue our exploration on the rocky shoreline. We stand for a long time, looking at the crashing waves, and at the Spouting Horn – a sea geyser – and Thor’s Well – a sea fountain – both driven by the power of the ocean.

 

 

 

We follow our journey south on US-101 by stopping at Washburne SP, a large beach surrounded by rocky capes, before a dramatic transition to the dunes area that we are going to explore tomorrow.

Day 50 and 51: Around Beverly Beach State Park, Oregon Coast

After a good breakfast, we leave Marvin and Grace, and drive toward Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast. The sun was bright and the sky was clear when we leave McMinnville, but as soon as we are on the other side of the Coastal Range, it gets cloudy, even very cloudy, and the temperature drops down. But we are on the Oregon Coast! And the whole coast is part of the public domain, as some farsighted people decided a long time ago. A great decision!

 

Our first stop is at Cape Foulweather, under a thick crowd of clouds. This cape was the first sight to be seen and named by Captain James Cook in the Northwest. We then go down the Cape to Agate Beach, covered with tiny dunes. Unfortunately, no agate is to be found. On the way out of the beach, we meet this couple searching for the dock from Japan. And we learn that on June 5^th of 2012, a large dock section washed up on Agate Beach, a large piece of debris from the Japanese Tsunami. Well, it’s gone.

 

Another stop at Lost Creep SP. While Red studies, Yellow walks along the shore on the rocky beach, looking for precious rocks. It doesn’t seem to be that easy to find those agates and other stones. But it’s great to be looking at the Pacific Ocean.

 

We stop at MacDonald’s in Newport, OR, to take advantage of their free wifi again, from inside the RV. And we settle in at Beverly Beach SP campground. Red continues her studies while Yellow cooks a Greek-style quinoa salad for the next lunches, and some sautéed potatoes and chicken, that we eat for dinner with a green salad and a Pyramid Hefeweizen beer.

The next day, despite the mist and the chill, we ride our bikes, first to Devil’s Punch Bowl SP. We get on our bike pretty early, as we have to be visiting the area while the tide is at its lowest point. The Punch Bowl is a huge bowl, with an opening through which the oceanic waves come crashing inside.

 

Then we bike to Yaquina Head Outstanding Area, still through the mist.

 

 

 

We first stop at Cobble Beach, which is a magnificent cobble stone beach, surrounded by awesome tide pools. Starfish, sea anemones and purple urchins are populating those pools.

 

 

Seals and pelicans are hanging out on the rocks a little bit farther from the shore, and on the horizon, we can see the whales breathing and barely getting out of the water.

 

 

We visit the lighthouse, which doesn’t look that high from outside, but walking to the top is not the easiest thing to do for somebody that has fear of heights.

 

 

This lighthouse was built in the 1870’s, and still uses its original 1868 French-made fixed Fresnel lens. Walking around the lighthouse, we can see again a lot of whales around.

 

And it’s in the chill that we bike back to our campsite, after a 12 mile ride. We eat lunch with a hot tea to warm ourselves, and Red returns to her books and online studies. Yellow plans the next days and takes a walk on Beverly Beach, still looking for some interesting stones under the chilly mist. He finally finds some shell fossils, but no agate. May be tomorrow…

Day 49: Portland, OR (day 2)

In the morning, Jeanne leaves the house as we get up to have breakfast. We spend some time talking to Marie, sharing her personal story and taking about travels.

 

We then take the Blue Line. We miss the first train because Yellow canceled the transaction for some obscure reasons while buying our tickets. A reason not good enough to justify missing the train at least. We finally take the train, then the bus to Hawthorne District. The neighborhood has some good vintage clothes and antique furniture stores. The Bagdad theatre is right here too. It’s a theatre in bad shape that got bought and transformed into a cluster of shops, bars, theater projecting old movies and so on. Interesting!

 

We slowly move toward downtown, eating our peanut butter & jelly sandwich, decided to get some good food at one of the food carts. We take the bus and search for those carts. Yellow tricks Red into visiting the world’s smallest public garden, so he could take a picture of it. We end up at El Cubo de Cuba for some Cuban pork plate with black beans, rice and sweet potato tots. Delicious again.

 

We check out the free section of the Museum of Contemporary Craft, before messing up our beer plan. There is a Tuesday pint for $ 2.5 at Roots Organic Brewery. Unfortunately, it is way further than we thought, so we go back to our hosts’ place. After packing and saying good-bye, we leave in the middle of the afternoon and we drive in the direction of the Oregon Coast.

We stop at Winco, a store not as interesting as Fred Meyer, but with a gigantic section of bulk dry fruits and seeds. We make our way to Fred Meyer for our grocery shopping as we escape the suburbs, and we end up at the host’s place for tonight in McMinnville, OR, at the beginning of the evening. It is not the Oregon Coast yet, but a beautiful and large valley with some nice hills, especially once the sun is going down. And it’s in the middle of these hills that we meet Marvin and Grace.

We have a delicious feast outside before eating the apple crisp dinner inside. They grow their own grapes to eat, and they are delicious, the best grapes we ever had. Of course, the evening is filled with some great discussions and we end up in bed right before midnight.

Day 48: Portland, OR (day 1)

We’ve never been to Portland before, not even to Oregon. But it’s like we already knew so much about it. Everybody knows Portland is cool, has lots of breweries and a vibrant alternative scene. Plus we have watched a couple of episodes of the show Portlandia before. Of course, there is so much more than that in Portland, but at the same time, what we discovered about the city went right along the lines of what we knew about it.

But first, we need to reach downtown. And Jeanne’s place is pretty close to the Max Station “122^nd St” on the Blue Line. So we take the light rail right into the city center. We don’t really have a map, but we end up at the center of the center: Pioneer Square. The people of Portland fought to have this square be what it is today, a meeting place surrounded by tall buildings. And this morning, there is a farmer’s market full of locally grown organic produce. So Portland!

 

While Red is getting her cup of coffee so she can make it through the day, Yellow goes to the Visitor Center, where he meets this guy that does free tours of the city center. Well, he works for tips, but it seems to be a pretty cool way to discover the area. So at 11am, we meet our guide and start the exploration.

Soon enough, we get to know some secrets about Downtown, Oldtown, Chinatown and the Pearl District. We learn about the food carts that are all over the city, 700 of them serving food as good as or better than restaurants. We learn about Portland’s obsession with beer and bikes, and the habit of the people from the city to go on strike. We hear the creepy stories related to the Shanghai tunnel and we visit the world’s smallest public park.

 

Portland is like a magnet attracting lots of people. People from California come there because it’s cheaper, and people from all over the US come there because it’s cool! But there are no jobs here. In fact, the city has a pretty high unemployment rate. And there is a large homeless population – enjoying drink water at all the distinct water fountains that were installed one day by a man annoyed at all the Portlanders drinking beer all the time.

A mayor said in the 80’s something along those lines: “Come visit Portland, but then go back home.” On the other side, it seems that Portland has a lot of resource and imagination to reinvent itself all the time. “Keep Portland weird” says a mural. And we agree with it.

 

We eat our lunch on the waterfront – in front of one of the city’s eight bridges – and meet Yellow’s friend, Noelle, at Voodoo Donuts. This is a punk rock donut shop, serving the weirdest donuts in the world. And they are good! Yellow gets a Voodoo donut while Red goes for a Bacon Maple one. And we savor them while having a great discussion with Noelle.

 

After saying bye to her, we wander in Pearl District. It’s sunny and really hot. We stop at Powell’s City of Books, may be the largest independent bookstore in the world. We get a beer at Deschutes Brewery and make our way to Union Station.

We then take the Yellow Line to reach N. Mississippi Ave, a street with some nice vintage shops and second-hand clothing stores. And here is the food cart we decided for: Wolf & Bear. They are serving falafel pita sandwiches. And they are the most delicious falafel pita sandwiches we ever had. So good!

We make our way back to our place, with difficulty. Back home, we realize that Jeanne prepared a whole dinner, so we eat dinner #2. Then Red goes study while Yellow talks with Jeanne for the rest of the evening.

Day 47: from Washington to Oregon through the Columbia River Valley

 We take our time this morning. After breakfast, we walk to the Columbia River, finding ourselves on a little beach, with a long heavy bridge connecting Washington and Oregon. This is the same Columbia River that we first discovered on our way to Radium Hot Springs, BC. We slept right on its left bank in Golden, BC and saw it blocked by a huge dam in Revelstoke, BC. And today, we’re gonna explore that massive river, that has been carving a massive gorge – the only East-West valley in the Cascade Range – in order to get to the Pacific Ocean, so we can get to Portland, OR.

We leave at 11am, and drive east on road WA-14. East? But Portland is west! Yes, it is. But today we want to explore the whole Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, so we start by going east. We leave White Salmon, WA, surrounded by thick forests, and stop at Lake Chamberlain rest area. Somehow, that river gorge looks more like a succession of lakes, as the whole gorge has been dammed. We’re apparently at the middle point between the dry side and the humid side of the gorge. But the haziness of the air doesn’t help us to see too much of a difference. On both sidse of the river, railroad tracks have been built right on the shore, and on the Oregon side, they have I-84 as a neighbor. We wait for awhile for a train to pass, but it’s not very busy at Sunday lunch time. Too bad.

 

We continue our drive east to US-97. And the change of landscape is dramatic. We find ourselves surrounded by arid lands, very rocky with some dry bushes. Some basaltic cliffs make their appearance. The only way to make the land greener is irrigation, and that area is very rich in wineries and fruit orchards, especially close to Maryhill, WA. We stop there at a fruit stand for some juicy peaches and local vegetables. Then we cross the Columbia River, and drive west, finally.

We drive across The Dalles, OR, which has a nice vintage atmosphere. The visitor center is closed, but we can still take advantage of the free wifi. From there, we take US-30, the Columbia River Valley Historic Highway, to drive west. The route is very pleasant, going through the cute Oregon countryside. We stop at Rowena Crest for the best views on the gorge, and for eating some of those ripe peaches that we just got. Delicious.

 

 

We slowly get back to the more humid side of the gorge. Before being altered by the construction of dams, the Columbia River was one of the world’s most important salmon runs. Some Native Americans are still fishing salmon as they used to do it centuries ago, but it’s just not the same anymore.

 

Multnomah Falls is another stop on our way to the west. One of the most famous spots of the gorge, it features the second highest year-long waterfall of the country. We’re definitely not alone on this one, but it is worth it.

 

Finally, in the beginning of the evening, we reach Portland and the house our host Jeanne and her roommate Marie. Jeanne has lived several years in Africa and in Asia. Marie is from Kinshasa, RDC, so we can speak some French with her. We get settled while they go to a choir concert for the evening. Red studies while Yellow prepares some dinner. And when Jeanne comes back, we spend the rest of the evening talking with her.

 

Day 46: Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

 We plan to wake up at 5:30am this morning, but Yellow is already getting up at 5am. After breakfast, we leave the campground at 6:30am and drive toward Mt. St. Helens. The morning fog envelops the countryside and the road is pretty bumpy. And once we take NF-99 road, it gets steep too.

We stop at Bear Meadow for a first view of Mt. St. Helens. 

And as we are getting even closer toward the volcano, we’re driving through blasted forests that are starting to recover, more than 30 years after the big explosion. We didn’t think that it would still look so devastated. We try to take the road to reach the Norway Pass trailhead, but half of the road is missing, so we park at Miner’s Car and walk to the trailhead, realizing that the road is not that bad after all. The Miner’s Car is a demolished car owned by the Miner couple, which happened to be too close to the volcano on explosion day.

We then walk to Norway pass – 4.5 miles round trip – in the remains of the destroyed forest starting to be very slowly taken over by the small regrowth. Mt. Rainier is showing up, and Mt. Adams, another snow-covered volcano peak, is emerging from the forest fire smoke. The area is dry and dusty. We feel like we are walking on ashes.

Some people are around though, picking some berries: huckleberries. And it’s true that the area is filled with them, along with some Saskatoon berries. Once we arrived at Norway Pass, the view on Mt. St. Helens, with its open crater, is beautiful over Spirit Lake. The lake is actually still filled with tree trunks.

On the way back, we start picking huckleberries, and we end up with a quart of them. We get some pumice rocks too, as the mountain is covered with them. As we get closer to the trailhead, the mountain is swarming with people. Children are being loud, and adolescents are running around. Everybody is picking huckleberries. This sounds like a great spot! May be a little bit busy on Saturdays.

After the hike, we drive a little bit around, until Cascade Peaks viewpoint, as road NF-99 is closed passed this point. Then, again, some more up and down driving on a bumpy road in the direction of Cougar, WA. But right before the town, we turn right to visit the Ape Cave. We actually focus on the lower cave. In fact, we walk 1.5 miles round trip in a large lava tube with our flash lights. It’s impressive, and even if it’s pretty busy, we have the opportunity to stop at one point, turn off the lights and be silent. It is pitch black, and we can barely hear other people being loud. Especially that group of middle-schoolers, with the guys burping and the girls giggling.

Anyway, once it’s done, we race to the south, very good roads, trying to reach the Columbia river before sunset. The breeze is warm in the gigantic river gorge, with Oregon on the other side. We both have never been there before. But tonight, we stay at Bridge RV Park in White Salmon, WA, right on the other side of the bridge from Hood River, OR. The owners are originally from southern Illinois, very nice.

Once settled down at campsite no. 8, and while sharing a local beer, Red studies and Yellow takes care of the meals for the next days. After a late salmon taco dinner, we go to bed, with the window open, pretty close to the sea level again.

Day 43 to 45: Mt. Rainier National Park

We say good-bye to Dan after breakfast, as he goes to work. His wife was already gone when we woke up. Then Red studies while JS prepares for the day, which seems to be a new routine setting up. We leave later in the morning.

Driving south, we make an attempt to stop at a REI store in the downtown area. Big mistake. Of course, the area is totally congested. In addition, there is no place to park a motorhome, especially with all those construction signs. We have a hard time getting back on the interstate, but we finally make it. Leaving slowly the Seattle suburbs, we stop for groceries at our favorite Northwest store, Fred Meyer.

And then, very rapidly, we are out of civilization again. We are being careful about filling our gas tank, which we do in the last town before wilderness, and we head in the direction of Mt. Rainier National Park. We can rapidly see the snowpeak, but it’s really hazy, due to some forest fires happening in the east of the state. Mt. Rainier being the highest point in the state of Washington, with its 14,411 feet, it is a very steep drive from sea level. We were planning to stay at the Ohanapecosh campground, but we end up at White River campground, as it is right on the drive to Sunrise, the road with the highest elevation in the park, and one of the best viewpoints.

Once settled down, we walk around the campground and to the river. From the river, we have a stunning view of Mt. Rainier, still surrounded by some haze. Red studies for the rest of the day while Yellow cooks. Some Coho salmon from Vancouver Island along with some black beans casserole and some salsa: it is going to be fish taco night! And it is delicious.

We go to bed pretty early that night, around 9pm. First, because we are recovering from our time in Seattle, and second, because the best views of Mt. Rainier are in the morning, especially as we find ourselves on the east side of the mountain. And it’s pretty cold too, as we are above 4,000 feet elevation.

Around midnight, Yellow is shocked by the thick fish smell that comes out of the garbage. We are in bear country, and even in a motorhome, this can probably be dangerous. As he doesn’t want to deal with any bear during the night, he puts the garbage bag in a container, which will hopefully contain the smell for the rest of the night. And back to sleep.

 

 The next morning, we wake up right after 6am, and we leave our campsite to start driving up to Sunrise, as the sun is rising. It is steep and windy, but the sky is pretty clear and the surroundings are beautiful. Once arrived at Sunrise, we admire the breathtaking vista, and we go eat our breakfast in the motorhome.

Then we hike 6-7 miles round trip to Mt. Fremont Tower, a viewpoint from an old watchtower, used to spot the forest fires in the past. The hike is magnificent, with Mt. Rainier almost always in sight, and the Cascade Range all around.

 

Going down from Sunrise, we drive up again to Cayuse Pass and Chinook Pass, before stopping at Tipsoo Lake for lunch. Then, very slowly, we start to descent again to get a campsite at Ohanapecosh campground, still in Mt. Rainier National Park. Once installed, Red goes back to her books while Yellow cleans and does some planning. Bertha, the motorhome, gets a deserved rest following a rough morning. After another delicious salmon taco dinner, we go to bed even earlier than the day before.

We wake up around 6am again the next morning. The road to Paradise is closed, but we drive up to Backbone Ridge for another beautiful sunrise on Mt. Rainier. The vista is very colorful, and the warm breeze is very enjoyable. As is the breakfast following this show.

 

We then go back to the campground to dump our waste waters and replenish with clean water. We leave Mt. Rainier National Park and go get some gas in Randle, WA. The cashier at the gas station happens to have Yellow’s family name. Great place indeed! Our next stop is at Cowlitz Valley Ranger Station, to get some information about our future plans. We stop at the public library to take advantage of the free Wifi, and end up at Maple Grove KM Resort for the night.

It is not even lunch and we are already settled at our campsite. The resort is very well maintained, and it is a gorgeous summer day, which we filled with studying and planning, along with one or two cocktails.