Cape Blanco, Oregon to Jedediah Redwoods State Park

But first, alert, alert, alert from border to border, coast to coast and all the ships at sea.  Fred is completely distraught because I misidentified a bird in my previous post.  The cheese-it photo shows  a gray jay not a Clark's nutcracker.  Oh, the humanity!  Thanks, Trent - I'll make the correction when I get better wifi.  Whew, now Fred can get some sleep.  (Fred also wants to point out that it is not ok to feed cheese-its to wildlife.)

And now, one of my most favorite, best, most excellent beaches to visit.  Cape Blanco.

It's really the reason we came out west on this Bambi trip, so we could visit it again.  Why is it so great.  Well, let me count the ways.

First, there is no one on this beach.  Really, no one.

Miles of open beach and guess what else they have?

Agates!  This agate would be worth thousands to the right collector.  And by right collector I mean one that's blind and also doesn't know what an agate is.

I picked up many, many nice looking completely amazing rock finds on this beach.  Just a note here that if I should be found drowned someday, check my pockets for rocks.  Chances are I was not trying to commit suicide ala Virginia Woolf, I was probably just out picking up interesting rocks and wandered out too far.

Sometimes you have to work for your agate booty

Fred doing his best Vanna White impression

That rock is another great thing about this beach.  It is covered with Pelagic Cormorants, cormorant nests, cormorant babies and lots and lots of cormorant poop.  Unfortunately, the sun was in the worst spot for photos so you're stuck with a shot of Fred instead.

There are also these huge piles of whale bones, their senseless slaughter just sickens and infuriates me and.....

Oh, wait it's just driftwood

My photography skills are often sought out by strangers

Crabs also line the beach here

Sperm whale sperm or possibly kelp

Rare igneous whale offshore

Fred, stop working

In the evenings, the campers flock like lemmings with wine glasses in hand to this cliff

To watch the sun disappear for the day

The zombie survival pod never looked so good

Bank calendar photo

You can also visit this lighthouse if you're the kind of person who likes buildings with big lights on top.  We toured it on our last trip out here and we figured it probably hadn't changed much.

Look hon, our ship came in (the famous Rogue River)

See ya next time Cape Blanco, I should just buy a house near here but I would also need to buy new clothes.  Ones with more pockets.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Not so very far away, near the town of Crescent City, CA we found ourselves deep in some old growth redwoods at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  Old Jed was an explorer and trapper out this way in the 1820s, who managed to get himself mauled in the face by a bear and eventually stabbed to death by some Comanches, so they named a park after him.  But I would have named it Big Ass Tree State Park because that describes it best.

Because as you wander around, that is the phrase you hear most often, as in "Wow, that's one big ass tree".

It's a bit of a challenge to photograph redwoods because you have to have some kind of scale and you can only get that by spreading your arms at the base, driving through a couple of big ones or climbing inside one.  Lucky for you guys, we know these complicated photo techniques.

Did you know that less than 4% of the original old growth redwoods remain?  Out of something like 2 million acres.  They are the world's tallest tree and can live to be over 2,000 years old.  If you have ever been in the redwoods, it boggles the mind that anyone could see a grove of them and think it was ok to saw them all down.  

Please tell me that sign isn't made of redwood

Rooty, toot, toot

Lovely, little grove really but we have to turn our eyes and Bambi eastward toward Lassen Volcano National Park.  Know what that means?  We are on the downhill slide to home, boo hoo.

Steens Mountain, Oregon to Cape Perpetua Oregon

After enjoying some quality time at the rest stop on the Bonneville Salt Flats, we crossed the border into the rather soulless town of Elko, Nevada and turned south to the Ruby Mountains where we saw the elusive dusky grouse.  Then we had a long six hours drive to Steens Mountain but not before another fill up (can't do that too often you know) in a town that has inspired many a song.  Well actually only one song.

I've been everywhere man, literally crossed the dessert bare man.

Such a lovely place, but can't linger here because we need to turn right and head to the Oregon coast.  But, you know what, it's a long way to the west coast from Austin, Texas so we stopped once again at a place called the Narrows, which was at the end of a very dusty, washboard road.  There is absolutely nothing out here in eastern Oregon.  Just this one little RV trailer park near Steens Mountain.

Like I said, to much here

Ahhchoo

In the evening we practiced shadow puppetry in the middle of the highway

Stunning sunsets and boy did the coyotes howl at night

As we settled into the RV park we discovered that the Bambi had lost power to the fridge, cooktop, lights, exhaust fan, gas heater, basically one half of the camper stopped working.  After some googling of the symptoms I concluded that the Bambi had a stroke.  Basically, unresponsive on one whole side.  Many busted fuses later Fred determined the problem would have to wait till we got to a bigger city.  Oh well, we are intrepid former backpackers (well me anyway) and that's what ice chests are for.

The main reason anyone stops here, other than hunters anyway, is for the drive and hikes to Steens Mountain.

Fred....sign

Yodel-ay-de-hoo

Just like the little mermaid, if she was on dry land, wore bifocals and dressed in heavy fleece

That's the Alvord desert in the distance, I really wanted to go here at night for the stars but it was way too far to drive

Not too many birdies out here

We hiked to the tippy top of Steens Mountain for some incredible views

Icy cold lake, thistles were still blooming way up here

Great view of the Alvord from up top

This alien communication station is on the very top, or it could be for weather monitoring I suppose

When we climbed down we ran into a guy who had this big horn sheep head attached to his backpack.  His friends were backpacking out the rest of the carcass.  He was all smiles, apparently this is a big deal among the type of people who enjoy cutting the heads off wild things.  Oregon gives out a couple of permits each year and there are thousands of applicants.

Git along little doggies, and that's just what we did

From desolate eastern Oregon, we arrived in the rather over crowded town of Bend, Oregon.  We had high hopes for this place but it was just too busy of a little town.  We could not get a spot in the state park because it was filled up so we ended up at a pretty nice little RV park where we were able to confirm with a mobile RV repair guy that the Bambi has a short behind the circuit board.  A repair that will entail a short hospital stay once we return home.  

The best part about Bend?  

The generous samplings at the Deschutes Brewery

Finally, finally, this is why came out this way, the coast.  Nothing against the prairie, the grasslands or the dry, empty landscapes of eastern Oregon but come on how can you beat views like this:

We spent two nights at the Carl G. Washburne State Park which I highly recommend.  At first we were bummed because the sign on the highway said the campground was full.  Fred thought that did not apply to us so we drove in and sure enough a guy was just pulling out and we got the last spot.  And look how nice it was:

Across the highway is a beautiful beach with no one on it.  Miles and miles of empty beach with soft, powdery sand.  

Well there was one other dude out there besides me

But mostly, it looks like this

From our campsite it's a short drive to Cape Perpetua, which has some pretty amazing views of the coastline and an interesting geologic feature.

Fred.....sign

This feature is aptly named, it is very churny

Fred getting way too close for my comfort.  The sea is funneled into this narrow channel very forcefully and makes a thunderous sound when it crashes right around where Fred is standing

This pelagic cormorant was basically in a washing machine.  He didn't seem to mind

Meanwhile, back at the campsite, that's a Clark's Nutcracker but clearly he prefers a cracker of a different kind.

Did someone say Cheez-Its?

Or maybe they're really Chee-toes

Last little hike through some gnarly woods 

Next up, it's off to my favorite beach on the west coast, Cape Blanco.