This was my second visit to Rialto Beach since I moved here, a rocky stretch of Washington's coastline featuring several sea stacks, standalone outcroppings that are all that remain from eroded coastal headlands.  Hole-in-the-Wall is a highlight of the beach.  A 1 1/2 mile walk leads to a sea stack where erosion has created a natural arch in the rock.  Tide was low, but rising, and it had risen just enough that I would have had to get wet to actually walk through the arch.

My last visit here was quite overcast, so I appreciated the fairly sunny conditions, and took a number of photos.

Rialto Beach would be my only sightseeing stop of the day.  Olympic National Park is within daytrip distance from Seattle, so this was the easiest part of the trip to trim.  I could tell that Hurricane Ridge would be covered with snow, and I've been to the Hoh Rainforest a couple times now (pre-digital camera, though).  But I still would have liked to have had more time to fit them in.  Oh well.  There's always next time.

After leaving Rialto Beach, I pretty much stuck to driving, heading south on US 101 for most of the drive to Astoria, Oregon, where I would turn in for the night.

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Coastal Oregon

Friday May 5 -

Today was a very good day, although I could have done without the morning fog sticking around so long.  Someday I'll make a drive down the Oregon Coast with full sunshine.

Coastal Oregon is quite pretty, a few hundred miles of mountains, public beaches, sea stacks and quaint villages.  And a few tourist traps, but not too many.  One could spend several days exploring it.  I tend to cover it with a day here, a day there, picking off a few sites every couple of years, although I've driven the length of it a few times now.

I began my day in Warrenton, home to Ft. Stevens State Park.  I had camped there a couple nights during my first western road trip back in 1991, and I don't think I've stopped in the park since then.  It is a pretty park, located on the coast at the mouth of the Columbia River, so its beaches and river views are among its highlights.  Along the beach is the wreck of the Peter Iredale, reduced to just the rusting ribs of what is left of the ship.  The park also features some WWII batteries and an interesting bit of WWII trivia.  On June 21, 1942, the Japanese shelled the Columbia River defenses at Ft. Stevens, the only shelling of a U.S. military base on the mainland in WWII, and the only such attack since the War of 1812.

The rest of the day was spent making my way down to Bandon Beach, with mostly just short photo stops along the way.  Stops included Cannon Beach, Oswald West State Park area, Nehalem Bay, Tillamook Bay, Boiler Bay, Devil's Punchbowl State Park, Seal Rock, Cook's Chasm, Devil's Elbow State Park, Oregon Dunes and Bullards Beach State Park.

I made an unexpectedly long stop at Yaquina Head BLM lands.  The promise of a lighthouse prompted the stop, but the lighthouse was undergoing restoration and thus was completely shrouded.  The views from Yaquina Head were also quite pretty.  But most interesting was its tidal pools.  They were teaming with clams, anemones, starfish, mollusks, crabs, small fish and other coastal and sea life.  Some nearby rocks were covered with harbor seals.  Seeing something like this in its natural setting brings out the kid in me, I guess, as I scrambled across the rocks checking out the inhabitants of the various pools.

The Bandon Beach area was my last major stop along the coast.  When I planned that 1991 trip, this was one of my Oregon destinations because of a photo on a wall calendar I had (the same calendar featured a picture of Delicate Arch, prompting my visit to Arches NP on that trip, too).  It is just a section of coastline featuring sandy beaches and large rocky outcroppings, some the remains of some sea stacks.  But in addition to the photo ops presented by the landscape, the sun had come out in full force by now, so it was just nice to be walking along the beach soaking up some rays.  A lot of wildflowers were in bloom, too, so they added to the colorful scenery.

Time to head inland to position myself for tomorrow.  I followed Highway 42 eastward across the Coastal Range, stopping to explore the village of Coquille and to check out the covered bridge at Sandy Creek.  

I ended my day at Roseburg, where I-5 meets Highway 138, the road I planned to take to Crater Lake in the morning.  After finding a hotel, I went out for dinner and then settled into my room for the evening.

Volcanic Oregon

Saturday May 6 -

I got up early and hit the road shortly after 7 AM.  I followed the Umpqua River on the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway, working my way towards Crater Lake National Park.  Shortly after passing a sign marking 3500 feet elevation, I saw my first bit of snow along the highway.  When planning the trip, I didn't do much homework.  When I visited Crater Lake back in 1996, it was August.  If I had reread through my park literature from that trip, I would have been reminded that the park has snow on the ground eight months a year.  Crater Lake and much of the crater rim that surrounds it is at roughly 7000-8000 feet elevation.  I would definitely see more and more snow on the ground the closer I got to the park.  

I made a couple photo stops, one of the caldera remnants of Mt. Mazama.  Mt. Mazama was a cascade volcanic peak that exploded a few thousand years ago with a force more devastating than Mt. St. Helens.  The top of the mountain was completely gone, leaving a deep caldera that would gradually fill with rainwater and snowmelt, becoming today's Crater Lake.  I would get great rim views of the remnants of Mazama both coming and going.  And of course while I was at Crater Lake itself.

The road into the park from the north was still closed due to the snow, so I circled the park and entered from the south.  Snow along the road got deeper and deeper, and as I neared the crater rim, the snow along the park road was 15 feet deep or more, and upwards of 20 feet deep in places.  Having grown up in Iowa and living in Ohio as long as I did, the amount of snow that the Cascades get each winter still amazes me.

I parked the car and climbed up the snow pack.  From this spot I had some outstanding views of Crater Lake and Wizard Island.  Crater Lake was quite pretty when I saw it back in 1996, but it is spectacular when the caldera rim surrounding it is covered with snow.  Of course, with all that snow on the ground, the Rim Road was closed, so I didn't have a long visit, and certainly not the kind of visit I had figured on.  But I was happy that I got to see it in its winter glory.

From there I headed north-northeast on US 97 to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which preserves a volcanic area in central Oregon.  My original plan was to check out Newberry Crater, but the road to the crater was still closed for the winter a few miles from the crater, and I wasn't prepared for hiking snow-covered trails.  Yes, my Midwest upbringing still has me thinking that snow is gone by May.  Especially when the weather is warm.

Other stops I had considered weren't open yet for the season, so I ended up at the visitor center where I hiked a short trail through some of the area's lava flows along the Lava Butte trail.

After finishing my hike I headed towards Portland, passing through the pretty Wind River Indian Reservation along the way.  I stopped at the Peter S. Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, which features the coulee-like chasm of the Crooked River.  I also stopped where the highway crosses the Warm Springs River and later for some views of Mt. Hood, just a couple of the pretty sights along the way.

I reached the hotel shortly after 6 PM.  After checking in, I headed over to the Columbia store to pick up some shorts, and then over to the Virginia Cafe to get some dinner.  Then it was back to the hotel to get some work done before heading out on the town.

I usually hit a couple bars along Stark.  Turns out the area has changed a lot since I was there just last August.  Three Sisters has closed.  Scandals remodeled the Three Sisters location and moved into it.  Part of the Boxx/Brigg complex has closed.  I decided to check out the Portland Eagle as my early bar, but there was only a small crowd.  Then I headed over to Silverado, my regular place.  Decent crowd, but it seemed to be a bit lackluster.  The place has a smallish dance floor, but that wasn't in use this time.  I got bored, and I was tired from too many restless nights, so I left around midnight.  I checked out the new Scandals, but it is a neighborhood-type bar, which isn't much fun when you're out alone.  And I wasn't any less tired at this point, so I headed back to the hotel around 12:30.

Heading Home

Sunday May 7 -

When I got up it was overcast with signs of rain.  And as I drove north out of Portland, it began raining steadily.  By the time I reached the interstate exit that would have taken me to Mt. Rainier, the continuing rain was enough to send me directly on to Seattle.  After all, if it is raining in the lowlands, it is even rainier at Rainier.  Ba-dum Boom!

Even with a stop at Target, I was home before 11 AM.  An underwhelming end to an otherwise very good trip.