Newport to Florence

Sun - Nov. 1st

Finally some sunshine today! Heading south toward Florence we drove by sheer cliffs down to the ocean with many cracks in the volcanic soil. These cracks have been eroded by crashing waves and created inlets where the waves come rolling in and boil up, creating big sprays against the rocks. We stopped at Devil's Churn and hiked down to take pictures. The waves crashing against the rocks were quite loud. As we drove thru this area there were frequent "Tsunami Hazard Zone" signs along the highway. Every place where there was enough land between the ocean and the highway to build, there were houses. Can you imagine looking out over the ocean on one side of your house and backing out your driveway onto the highway with that sign posted right next to your driveway?

We also drove thru the small towns of Yachuts (yah-hots) and Waldport. Yachut is an Indian word meaning dark waters at the foot of a mountain, which is a very accurate description. Wald is a German word meaning forest, forested port. The sides of the mountains are very thick forest and drop right off in steep cliffs to the ocean.

We set up camp at Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park three miles south of Florence in the Oregon Dunes. The dunes go for 47 miles and the four wheelers and dirt bikers love them. My little brother would have a blast here. We hiked up to watch a few of them before we headed into Florence.

At Florence we walked along the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean. We also saw some guys trying to surf and wind surf and some crazy kids just playing and swimming in the surf. My fingers were freezing just taking pictures. I had on a sweatshirt, vest, lined jacket and ear muffs! It must have been around 45 degrees and very windy.

Lots of sunshine, fresh air and exercise today. We finished off the evening with an old movie, "The Last Time I saw Paris" with Liz Taylor and Van Johnson. All in all, a great day.

Hoping for more sunshine tomorrow.

Tarra