The last local road trip we could complete was the Oregon coast.
This was it.
Friday, June 6
Drive from Spokane Valley to Portland, Oregon
On the way to Portland there is a roadside Stonehenge replica. That's pretty unique, so we stopped by to take a look.
Windmill garden on the road
At the Stonehenge replica:
Owen climbs the stones
Kellen and Kai make their way up, too
Friendly Neighborhood Owen
Emily and Bunny at Stonehenge
Daddy and Emily hang out in the shade
We checked into our hotel in Portlant, the Embassy Suites
After dinner at the local mall,
we went back to our hotel room
and Emily pulled out her own tooth!
Saturday, June 7
First thing in the morning, Emily discovered that the tooth fairy had visited!
She even follows you on vacation!!
Emily runs into the room after making her discovery
After a filling Embassy Suites breakfast, complete with made-to-order omelette bar, we drove out to Silver Falls State Park and spent the day hiking around and checking out all the waterfalls.
Kai (peace) and Owen (ok) behind the waterfall
Emily gets a piggy back ride and some fellow hikers bring joy with bubbles
Bunny on the hike
The family behind the water fall
It may not look it in the picture, but the kids had to climb up pretty far to get into the tiny rock cave
Kellen and Kai worked really hard to get up into this rock cave in the CEILING of the outcropping
Kellen (red hat) and Kai in front of the falls
Daddy and Emily
Enjoying a break on the log before going back to the trail to continue our waterfall trek
Last waterfall visit.
Just on the side of the trail, this one didn't have lines or a bunch of tourists. Most people just glanced at it while they walked on by. Not us. We stop, sit, and enjoy the beauty.
And Emily and Bunny collect flowers at lunch time
Emily "planted a tree"
Bunny and Emily enjoy the view from afar
After a full day of outdoor adventure, we had dinner at the hotel and spent some time in the hotel's pool.
Kellen loves his burger dinner
Owen and Kellen have fun in the pool
Emily has fun no matter where she is
The boys all splash together (Kellen, Owen, Kai)
Time to get out!
Sunday, June 8
First thing on the agenda today: breakfast.
Emily visits with a friend she made at the pool last night
Then, it was on to the Tillamook factory in Tillamook, OR.
After Tillamook, we headed down the coast and stopped off at the beach to enjoy some waves and beachy times in Lincoln City. Dad showed us part of his missionary area, including one of the apartments he stayed in.
Kai (black shirt), Kellen (red shirt, red hat)
Kai, Kellen, Dad stand in the surf
Emily runs out to Owen in the surf
Owen wanted to get some water pictures, so he took my phone and got some pretty good ones:
The fam on the beach
Some of the treasures we found while on the beach
crabs
sea stars and anemones
shells and sand dwellers
Dinner was at Mo's seafood restaurant.
We stood in lines outside for maybe 20 minutes, but they moved people along pretty quick and we even got the boys to each some seafood! WHAAAAAAAATTT?!!!
That's right- and they liked it (wink)
This was the view we had from our inside table at Mo's
Bunny at the seaside
Monday, June 9
We began this day at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Lincoln City, OR.
It was a quaint little aquarium and we all enjoyed the shows, animals, and exhibits.
The touchable tide pool exhibit
The kids at the tide pool
(left to right: Kai, Kellen, Emily, Owen)
The sea lion trainers fed and showed off the sea lions
This one sea lion got right up to the glass in front of the kids!
Inside the mouth of an ancient shark.
Even bunny made it through
There was a demonstration with a Pelican- quite the well trained bird!
Emily wanted to pet the turtle and ask some questions of the presenter
Emily, Bunny, and Owen play around
Art made from ocean-found trash (bottle caps, plastics, shoes, boat pieces, etc.)
After the aquarium, we drove further down the coast to see Thor's Well, Devil's Churn, the Haceta Head Lighthouse, and the Sea Lion Caves.
Thor's Well.
It's a hole in the floor of the rock cliff, so that when the tide is in, it looks like there's a hole in the ocean! Tide wasn't completely in when we visited but it was till neat to see the waves coming in and out of the rock hole. And it was LOUD! (see Emily?)
We weren't able to go INSIDE the lighthouse, but was got to visit and see the area still.
Kai (red shorts) and Emily with Bunny
The view from the lighthouse hill
There's a trail that leads up the hill from the lighthouse so you can see what it looks like at the level of the light, which actually still functions!
Bunny at the lighthouse
After the lighthouse was the Sea Lion Caves
Silhouette of Owen, Emily, Kai, Dad at the Sea Lion Caves looking out/north.
The whole family at the end of the sea lion caves trail inside
There was only 1 sea lion in the actual cave and he was sleeping, but there was a family of a mom and her several pups sunning themselves on the rock ledge outside the cave.
Tuesday, June 10
We finished the drive down to the Redwoods today. First stop: Fern Canyon & Gold Beach. We had to have reservations to access these areas. Before they implemented the reservation system, there were around 300 cars a day visiting the site with a parking lot that only accommodates about 50 cars!
Fern Canyon may just be one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited.
Trail out to to Fern Canyon.
It's only about 1/4 mile from the parking lot to the actual canyon
The stream runs the length of the canyon and it's pretty much impossible to NOT get your feet wet and go any distance up the canyon. So- water shoes and wet feet it is. And it was SO worth it.
Kai, Kellen, Owen in front of a trickling water fall
Dad hikes through the water
Emily traverses some water
Emily found a banana slug
This tree has foot holes from where all the people throughout all the years have all put their feet in the same place
After Fern Canyon we walked the opposite direction and onto Gold Beach, where it was very blustery and the kids played in the water a little bit before heading back in for lunch.
Herd of elk just doing their thing: eating, grazing, laying, watching.
We drove out to our VRBO on the other side of the park and stayed the night in a nice little house where everyone had a real bed and not a sofa bed.
Wednesday, June 11
There are several drive-through trees in the Redwoods. This one is called the Tour Through Tree. And our car would not fit. So we just visited and took pictures.
The short drive up to the Tour Thru Tree
At the entrance to the drive for Tour Thru Tree there is a downed redwood that shows its dendrochronology. They. Are. OLD trees!
After the Tour Thru tree we took a scenic drive through the Redwoods, not just the highway cutting through it. On the way we saw Big Tree. That's it's name: Big Tree. No kidding.
Owen, Emily & Bunny by trees on the drive
Kai (red shorts) and Kellen by trees on the drive
The whole family could fit inside this tree!
It's a big tree.
The sign says so.
Bunny hopped the sign to "Even BIGGER trees"
Owen is a tree hugger
Kai with enormous trees
Emily and her super tree super powers
Some of the redwoods had carve outs around their bases that created caves the kids liked to climb into
You can even climb the bases of some of the trees to the base platforms and knobs above the ground
A Redwoods scenic side road drive
We stopped by a lookout on the way around the park.
We had no idea that at this lookout we would be able to see 3 groups of whales spouting near the shore.
WOW!
It's tough to see in the pictures, but if you look close you can see the black spot in the ocean near the tree on the shore: that's a whale on the surface.
And here you can see the mist from the whale spouting.
Kellen, Kai, Emily on the fence of the viewing area
After the viewing area we went on another scenic drive. This one led to the Boy Scout Tree Trail.
This is a trail that was created by a Boy Scout in the 1930s. It's 3 miles in to the tree, one of the biggest and oldest in the forest.
The boys walk up the road to the Boy Scout Trail.
The Boy Scout Tree Trail... for posterity.
Scouts hiking the scout trail.
Along the trail we found a newt eating a banana slug. COOL!
The tree was SO big!
This sign is about 20 feet up in the tree.
On the way back from the tree the kids cut the trail and walked along a fallen tree.
In order to get Emily to hike the entire trail (she was pretty tired on the way back and REALLY wanted a piggy back ride), she was promised a surprise if she walked the whole way by herself.
Ben and Jerry's ice cream it is for hiking all 6 miles.
Thursday, June 12
This morning we checked out of our VRBO and found a friend right by the front door wishing us happy travels.
Emily loved the banana slugs so much she got a banana slug stuffy to add to her collection.
This is the house we stayed in with VRBO.
First stop on the way out: Stout Grove.
Kellen on a fallen and cut tree
Kai, Emily, Kellen
Owen climbs into and poses in a downed redwood
Emily's cuteness on the trail
Can you see how big the tree in compared to the little person inside of it?
Can you even see the little person?
Owen
Kai
I spy people!
After the Stout Grove was the Grove of the Titans.
This was truly a grove of very old, enormous living things.
The early day was overcast, so the sun wasn't blazing down on us, making it cool and easy to hike the 1 mile out to the Titans from the parking area.
On the trail there we walked through some overgrowth
Trail and river lookout on the way to the Titans
The pathway in the Grove of the Titans is a raised metal grate keeping you up off the forest floor.
It's VERY well supported so it doesn't creak or rattle when you walk on it.
Kellen (left) and Kai (right) on the trail to the Titans.
The Grove of the Titans finished off our time in the Redwoods forests.
Then it was a drive up to Crater Lake in Oregon.
It was June and they STILL had snow on the ground!
We sat in the visitor's center for a while completing the Junior Ranger booklets, so the kids could get their Crater Lake Junior Ranger badges.
See? Lots of snow still on the ground. It's all compacted from all the walking on it, but it was melting more and more every day, so it was also wet and slippery.
Crater Lake behind us.
Left to Right: Emily (with Sluggy), Dad, Owen, Mom, Kellen, Kai
Left to Right: Kai, Dad, Kellen, Mom, Owen, Emily, Sluggy.
Bunny made it to Crater Lake, too.
Left to Right: Dad, Mom, Owen, Emily, Kellen, Kai
From Crater Lake we drove to Bend, Oregon, where we had dinner and stayed the night.
Friday, June 13
First thing Friday morning was getting out to the Lava River Cave just south of Bend.
It required making an advance reservation and showing up during the reservation time.
It took us about 2 hours to complete the 1-mile walk into the cave and out. We had our own lights and handlamps, but it turned out that the hand-held lanterns they let you rent are superior.
We were some of the first in the cave that day, so we didn't have a whole lot of traffic around us, which allowed us to experience the cave just us as a family... turning our lights off at different intervals to experience the complete blackness of absolute zero light. Creepy.
At the beginning of the cave there is a pathway with handrails that leads you down the rock cave in to the relative safety of the cave floor below.
We found a hidden Mickey in the cave!
Actually, Kellen and Kai found it.
The cave goes further than the sign they put up, but it just gets too narrow and difficult to navigate, especially with lots of people, so they ask that people stop here.
At the end of our cave dive: coming out of the 42 degrees of damp darkness.
The afternoon of this day was one of the most exciting of the whole trip:
White water rafting.
Everyone got to go, even Emily (age 6.5).
It was only a short trip- maybe 2 hours or so from the time we checked in to the time we got back to the shop from the river (they shuttled us from the shop downtown to the river entrance).
It was overcast and drizzly, and we went anyway. We were a little chilled, but not enough to ruin the fun.
Emily sat right up front on the seat, everyone else sat on the sides with the paddles.
Right side: Dad, Kai, Kellen
Left side: Owen, Mom
Yep- we got wet.
At a lookout spot on the river we got off the raft and walked up to watch a guide navigate some of the rapids we were going to go through. This is our guide explaining what we can expect.
Kai and Owen watch the rapids and listen to the guide.
At the end of the day, we dined out at a local restaurant called J-Dubs.
Saturday, June 14Having seen all the things and done all the things, we journeyed home.
This was one of the longer driving days: 6.5 hours driving time.
We are always glad to come home, sleep in our own beds, and see our pets again.
It was a great road trip.
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