Hello again. Well we spent the last two days driving up the Oregon coastline along Hwy 101. Wow was it beautiful!

We stopped at this one turnout spot for a look and to take some photos. As we looked down to the beach (about 120 feet below), we noticed a person down there. We just couldn't see how they had hiked down. After a few moments, Cricket noticed a narrow trail leading down from the south end of the parking area about 50 yards away and off she went with Jake. I was still taking photos and the boys were already back in the motorhome waiting to go. Another minute had gone by so I decided to see where she went off to and found the same trail.



I went back to the RV to see if the boys wanted to hike down to the beach. After the previous days tough hike down, Adam was not up to trying this one. So we locked him in the RV, while Lucas and I hiked down to find Cricket.

As it turned out, the trail wasn't as bad as the previous days, but it was still steep with a lot of switchbacks. But it was worth it. A beautiful and peaceful beach, waves crashing against the rocks, starfish and sea urchins everywhere, and a natural sea cave. It was one of the best spots along the Pacific coast we've seen so far.



Since Cricket wanted to stay there for a while, we thought it would be best to go back and get Adam. So I quickly hiked back up the trail. Whew! Getting down is always so much easier.

Upon arriving back to the RV, I had to take a break. While I got something to drink and a snack, I also hit the DataStorm button to raise the satellite. I figured this would be a great spot for a Geocache and wanted to see if there was one here. There were actually three of them within a half-mile distance. The best thing was that the Geocache informed me of an even better spot with a natural bridge just 200 yards to the north!

So I packed a backpack with water to take down and off we went. After playing down on the beach for a while, we began the hike back up the hill. When we made it back to the RV, Cricket and the boys took a break while I went and looked for the other trail to the north.

After a short rest, Cricket and I hiked the trail north to find the Geocaches and the natural bridges. As it turned out we could have drove just a quarter mile up to another parking area. But hey, exercise is good right? This one was a tougher trail that was very overgrown. Or should I say the foot path was clear, but the sides and top were so tight that we spent most of the way walking crouched like a chicken. This was a trail that not very many people take.

If you look at the photo below, we made it all the way down to the first bridge opening on the left side. To go up and over the whole bridge was a narrow path that was only about a foot wide. After contemplating it for a while, I decided that climbing up would not be a problem. But the climbing back down part seemed a little scary. So we just admired the views from that vantage point for a few moments before heading back up. Once we got to the top, we walked over the wooden overlook platform.



To get back to the motorhome, we decided to walk along the road this time instead of taking the nature trail. As we were walking along a bicyclist stopped to have a chat with us. She was a 74 year old woman from from New Zealand who was bicycling all the way from British Columbia down to San Francisco. This was here second time doing this road trip. The first was back in the 1980's when she actually went all the way down to Los Angeles. We said our goodbyes and she was on her way pedaling along.



We continued driving further north along Hwy 101 and eventually pulled over at a rest stop just north of Humbug Mountain State Park right on the beach for the night. The boys wanted to play on the beach for a while so after eating dinner, out we went. It was really windy and had cooled off a bit so we didn't stay long.

Yesterday morning we continued driving up Hwy 101 until we reached Lincoln City where we turned east onto Hwy 18. We ended up at Champoeg State Park where we will be for the next few days. It is a short drive the the state capital in Salem.

Well that's it for now. I'll be back soon for another update.

Mark