Pacific City to Tillamook, Oregon

Yesterday we continued to explore landmarks along the coast, this time traveling north from Lincoln city where we are currently parked.  Our tour book has been The Original Highway 101 Mile by Mile Guide. Pacific City is famous for the dory boats which are loaded directly into the surf.  For over a century the boats have gone from this harbor to fish on the open sea.  After 1927 larger surf boats were needed for commercial fishing, called double enders.  They required two sets of oars,  later a motor well was added near the stern.  The harbor, called Cape Kiwanda, is pictured below.  Large sand dunes mark this area.

At Cape Meares we took a short walk to see the Octopus Tree.  It had been overcast and foggy up to this point, but now the rain had started.  A picture of the tree may explain how it received its name.

The tree, a Sitka spruce, is 250-300 years old and has no central trunk.  It is unknown whether nature or Native Americans caused its unusual shape.  Also at Cape Meares is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon.

Near the city of Oceanside is Three Arch Rock Wildlife Refuge, the first NWR west of the Mississippi.  When citizens of the town noticed birds being killed there by hunters, they appealed to President F. Roosevelt for protection of the birds.  It is the home of the largest tufted puffins along the coast.

From Cloverdale to Tillamook we saw many dairy farms with cattle feeding on lush pastureland.  It rains here pretty much constantly from November to March.  Not surprising, then, to find a large cheese factory here, the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We took a self-guided tour of the place, watching large hunks of cheese being sliced and packaged.  We munched on cheese samples, and, with ice cream cones in hand, we headed out from there to our last stop of the day, Munson Creek Falls.  To see the falls it was necessary to take a short walk through a very wet forest, which is quite lush with plants and trees.  In this setting the falls (highest on the coast at 319 feet) are quite spectacular.  The fog did not detract from their beauty.

Central Coast of Oregon

We are now parked within walking distance of a beach.  Unlike Florida, where public beaches are few and far between, Oregon has a law that all of its beaches remain open to the public.  To get the the beach near us  we have a choice of either crossing Pacific Coast High 101 or entering Fogarty Creek State Park (which lies next door to us), following the creek by the same name under the highway and then walking unto the beach.  It just came to my mind this morning that since last September we have been on the beach in Rhode Island, Florida, Texas and now Oregon.  One of these day we should act our age and settle down!

 It was cool and a bit overcast yesterday morning.  Appropriately, our first stop yesterday was at Cape Foulweather.  Captain James Cook also experienced bad weather when he was there in 1778, which is how the area received its name.  Strong winds at Cape Foulweather have been clocked at 100 miles per hour.  Our tour of the coast yesterday was determined by where the rv repair shop is located.  After picking up a needed part for our motorhome we drove to Otter Rock.

The Oregon coast, as again pictured above, is quite rugged with high rocky cliffs.  At this overlook we took at trail to find the Devil's Punchbowl.

The large bowl pictured above is a basalt (a volcanic rock) formation which, when the ocean is in a storm mode, creates intriguing wave action in the hole.  No action going on when we were there, unfortunately.  Another place where freaky wave action also occurs is at the town of Depoe Bay.  The town has "sprouting horns".  There is an area along the sea wall where one can get hit with a strong spray of water from the ocean, it almost happened to us several years ago when we were there.  Coastal rock formations, like lava tubes, are flooded by the force of strong waves and sprout geyser-like sprays.   The town also is famous for the fact that it has the smallest harbor in the country.

While at Depoe Bay we stopped at the Whaling Center.  Information is given there about whales and dolphins, there are also observation decks and docents to help visitors do some whale watching.  Earlier in the day we had seen whale spouts off in the distance at Cape Foulweather.  At the whaling observation center we fortunately were able to see the fluke (tail) of a whale as it swam through the ocean.  It must have been a good day for whale watching- nine had been spotted at the center, a total of 12 since the beginning of September.  At the end of our day yesterday we did some tide pool walking. and saw only anemones

Touring around Silverton, Oregon

We have been quite busy in this area the past week, However I will still try to wrap it all up in this one posting.  John was quite determined to see the Spruce Goose while we were here.  The wooden plane built in the 1940s is located in a town near here, McMinnville, Oregon.  Howard Hughes preferred to call his plane the Flying Boat, he considered the nickname a bit silly- after all, it was made of birch, not spruce!   The plane was designed for trans-Atlantic flight during WWII to avoid the German submarines that were sinking Allied ships.  The largest wood-constructed plane to be built, it was to carry material goods and troops.  However, it was not ready for flight until the war was over, so it only flew one mile over Long Beach Harbor, in 1947.  It sat in moth balls for 33 years, in 1988 it was moved to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.  Pictured below is the inside of the plane, looking toward the tail.  The beach balls were used for flotation in wing floats.

Three years ago when we visited Silverton we did go to Silver Falls State Park.  However, because it was quite a cool day in April then, we only saw one of the ten falls which are in the park.  The Trail of Ten Falls is an eight-mile hiking path which passes by and under some very stunning waterfalls of the north and south forks of Silver Creek.  According to the park's brochure, Silver Falls is a temperate rainforest, an average of 80 inches of rain falls yearly.  We found the trail to be quite wet and even muddy in some places.  Ferns are thick along the trail and moss heavily covers every tree.  John and I did about 5 miles of the trail and missed two of the falls.  The trail was quite exhausting as it involved a lot of elevation change.  We went down the canyon of the south fork and up the canyon of the north fork of the creek.  At Middle North Falls, as well as at South Falls, there is a short trail which took us behind the waterfalls.

Another place we revisited while in Silverton was the Oregon Gardens.  There is a partnership with the city and the Garden in that the latter's wetlands cool the town's treated wastewater.  In the wetlands of the garden the water flows through a series of ponds.  Pictured below is one of the Garden's sculptures called Lupine Fugue.  The artist created the steel structures to replicate the form of the native lupine flower.

In the Oregon Garden there are twenty different themed gardens.  At the Silverton Market Garden can be found many of Oregon's agricultural products.  Ripening now are grapes, hops and apples.  Buried behind the beautiful daisies pictured below are grapes ripening on the vine.

 

One of the wonderful features of the garden is its conifer garden.  It has one of the largest collection  of miniature conifers in the country.  Pictured below is a western hemlock.  It is draped over quite an imaginative sculpture titled Thorsen's Weeping.   Today we are moving to the coast of Oregon.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Our second day in central Oregon was spent looking at different features of this caldera.  Newberry Monument is the largest volcano in the Cascade arc, covering an area about the size of Rhode Island.  It has two deep lakes and lava flows of pumice and obsidian.  Our first stop was at Lava Butte.  John spent his time there at the Visitor's Center looking at all the exhibits which had way more information on the monument than I had the patience to read.  After a few minutes there I headed out to explore the fields of lava which surrounded the building.  It reminded me a bit of Craters of the Moon.

You may notice in the picture above a very twisted tree.  Someone with a sense of humor dubbed such trees as "Lava Ness Monsters.   From the visitor's center we drove to the summit of Lava Butte. There we had a good view of a volcanic caldera.  Depending on mineral distribution within the rock and atmospheric conditions lava cinders can be found in red or black.

The most spectacular lava flow in the Newberry Volcano is the Big Obsidian Flow, which is 1,300 years old.  Usually the rock one sees in lava flows is pumice.  Obsidian is a liquid that has cooled before crystallizing-  there are striking differences from rock to rock due to the number and size of the bubbles which are present during its formation.  We hiked up to the summit of the Obsidian Flow and could easily see the black shiny rock which lay mixed in with the pumice. The obsidian and pumice of this lava flow contain 73% silica, like most window glass does.

While hiking on this trail we met up with a couple from Liverpool, England.  John had questions for them about the Beatles, which led to quite a long conversation with them.  From the summit of this lava flow we could see Pauline Lake, one of the two lakes within the Newberry Monument.  It and East Lake have hot springs with temperatures as high as 135 degrees Fahrenheit, and in 1981 temperatures higher than 500 degrees were found in a geological survey. These temperature measurements indicate that Newberry is a high threat volcano.

Returning home we went over McKenzie Pass, which brought us back to the western side of the Cascades.  Unfortunately storms were moving in and a heavy cloud cover prevented us from seeing much of the Cascade range.  At the summit we explored a rock tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.  Each window in the building provides a view of one mountain, and the name of that mountain is written above the window. It was getting quite cold and windy by this time and the tower was a warm place to take one final look at the mountainside before heading for home.

McKenzie-Santiam Scenic Byway- Central Oregon

This past week John and I drove south through central Oregon.  It was a two day trip that we took in our tow car and which necessitated us to spend one night in Bend, Oregon.  Initially we drove through very dense forests Douglas firs, cedar and hemlock.  Being a fairly wet area, there are also many ferns which dot the roadside.  This is the western side of the Cascades, which receives about 40-100 inches of rain a year.

We climbed Santiam Pass and found ourselves looking at a very different landscape.  This is the eastern side of the Cascades, which receives 10-25 inches of precipitation a year.  Here the land is covered by sagebrush, Western juniper and bunchgrass.  We stopped in the small town of Three Sisters, which was named after the three mountains above.  Middle and North Sisters are on the right, and the South Sister sits off to the left of them.  They were originally called Faith, Hope and Charity by Methodist missionaries in the 1840s.  In Bend Oregon we found a place to stay for the night and then proceeded to the popular scenic viewpoint of the town, which is Pilot Butte.  The high hill is a cinder cone volcano.  Every hill or mountain of the Cascades rests upon ancient eroded peaks.  From the top of the butte we could see the Three Sisters again, as well as other mountains in the Cascade mountain range.  Pictured below are the Blue Mountains of Oregon, which are in the northeastern corner of the state. In the foreground is the town of Bend.

That evening, in Bend, we saw the movie The Butler, which I was anxious to see it before it left the theaters.  The movie did a fairly good job recounting the history of our nation from the 1950s to the present time, but it does have its shortcomings in telling that history through the life story of a White House butler.  The next day, the second day of our trip, we drove out of Bend to the High Desert Museum.  The museum has indoor and outdoor exhibits exploring the culture, history and wildlife of the area.  We got there in time for the feeding of river otters by a docent.  After their meal the otters climbed onto the banks and lolled around, very happily sated from their meal of fish.  We spent the rest of our day touring the Newberry Caldera, more on that in my next posting.

Mt. Angel, Oregon

We are now settled in Silverton, Oregon, which we visited three years ago.  Yesterday we drove north of the town to Mt.Angel, a small town with German roots tucked in the countryside which surrounds Silverton.  We drove by fields of corn and even larger fields of hops.  There are also apple orchards in this part of the country.  Along the way drove through the Gallon Covered Bridge, built in 1916.

The 84-foot bridge earned its name as the place to get a gallon of moonshine during Prohibition.  Coming into Mt.Angel the Glockenspiel Restaurant was the first building which caught our eyes.

After touring Mount Angel Abbey we returned to watch the figures of the Glockenspiel dance about and to hear the music.  The hand carved figures tell the history of the town.  Mount Angel is famous for its Oktoberfest, one of the Northwest's largest folk festivals.  It will be occurring in a couple of weeks, unfortunately we will miss it.

On the eastern edge of the town is a 480 foot knoll which the Native Americans called "place of communion with the Great Spirit".  It was renamed Mount Angel by Father Odermutt in 1882 when he established the Mount Angel Abbey on its slopes.  The chapel of the abbey is pictured above.  The inside of the church is quite beautiful with its wooden beams.

We enjoyed our walk over the grounds of the abbey, which overlooks the farmlands below and has views of Mount Hood off in the distance.  We were going to by-pass the museum of the abbey, but a seminarian encouraged us to see it.  What a surprise!  It had nothing to do with the history of the monastery but has on display various collections donated to the abbey.  There are exhibitions of stuffed animals and birds, as well as pottery from Jerusalem dated 300-200 B.C.  There are also ancient instruments from around the world, as well as art collections.  The museum is in a building off to the side of the main buildings- one would never guess that there are valuable artifacts and art located in that museum.

Portland, Oregon

The Willamette River divides Portland east from west and the Burnside Bridge/street (pictured above) separates north from south.  A series of 11 bridges connects the east and west sides.  It is a city of historic brick buildings as as well as modern glass and steel structures.  John and I made three different trips into the city, during two of those times we spent some time at the Saturday Market in Old Town.

If you want to explore the character of Portland go to its Saturday Town Market.  It is about as quirky as some of its neighborhoods.  We found booths selling trilobites (fossilized ancient marine anthropods), sweet potato cupcakes, as well as purses and lamps made from Hollywood 35 mm film.

On our second walk through the historic district we accidentally came upon Voodoo Doughnuts.  We had to check it out because its customers were line up out the door and around the block.  A young boy stepped out of the bakery with a doughnut about the size of a frisbee.  The icing on it looked to be several inches thick and it was topped with marshmallows.  His mother explained to us that the popularity of the doughnut was due to its uniqueness.  A couple of blocks from the doughnut shop there was another long line, it was a homeless shelter and apparently the people were probably waiting for food handouts.  While in Portland we noticed many people sleeping on the streets and in the parks.  We walked past a small lot filled with tents.  The tents were protected from public view on one side by a series of wooden doors.

We read in The Oregonian that the police have swept the homeless out of one camp.  On a more positive note, I read in Street Roots that Portland's Housing Bureau has been successful in finding 717 housing units for low-income families.  We also found in Portland a church that is "unafraid to act out of compassion towards a world that is just and free".  We attended  our niece Cheryl and her husband's church, Salt and Light Lutheran Church for worship yesterday.   It is located in one of the poorer areas of Portland and has opened its doors to meet the needs of the community surrounding it.  One cottage industry, soap making, has been started there, as well as a kitchen tool library.  Community gardens surround the church, and a founding board is being organized to bring the church into a Leaven Community.  Such community organizations work with other faith groups to bring about positive changes within their neighborhoods.  As part of his sermon the pastor had the church members discuss the role of the church in the world today.  Several members expressed their hope that churches will change, and reinvent themselves to become places where people of all ages and from all walks of life will be eager to walk through its doors.  After church and lunch we walked with Cheryl and her son around their neighborhood.  Small shops and food trailers are located along its streets.  Neighbors were friendly and greeted us as we walked by.   We walked past a small lot into which small houses have been moved-  a sign over the entrance reads: "Tiny House Hotel".  A young man, probably the owner, was willing for us to look into the small houses which are on wheels.  I came to like the city of Portland, it will be one of my favorites of the larger cities we have visited.  It is a very vibrant, colorful city.  Today we have now moved on to Silverton, Oregon.

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

This mountain is the youngest and most explosive of the Cascade Mountain volcanoes.  Thirty-five hundred years ago she exploded producing thirteen times more ash and rock than on May 18,1980.  The mountain is about 100 miles northeast from where we are parked here in Portland.  We drove there on Friday, which turned out to be a long trip as it involved a lot of mountainous driving over narrow winding roads which have been damaged by frost heaves.  Unfortunately we never did get a good view of St.Helens because of the heavy cloud cover over her on the day we were there. 

Notice in the picture above grey spots on the hillsides where there are no trees.  In 1980 magma burst from the mountain outward in a hurricane-force blast of hot gas, ash and rock.  In its wake it left a grey patchwork of falling and standing dead trees.  The lateral blast destroyed 230 square miles of forests, most of which lay in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  Our first stop was at an overlook which gave us a good view of Clearwater Valley.  It lies in the "scorch zone".  Within 2 to 17 miles of St. Helens trees in this area were either scorched or killed.

Thirty-three years ago there would not be the vegetation which we see in the picture above.  Fifty-seven people lost their lives when the eruption occurred, and they were outside of the restricted areas.  On May 15, three days before the blast, a couple left their car and hiked 8 miles to a cabin.  They had signed a state liability waiver so they could be in the "blue zone".  They died, and their 1972 Pontiac is pictured below.

Of course, this car was not a rust bucket when we saw it about 20 years ago!  The blast temperature has been estimated at 400 degrees F. It sandblasted the paint off the car and melted the interior.

Spirit Lake was another of our stops of the day.  The explosive force of the volcano caused a landslide of water sloshing 800 feet up to the adjacent hillsides.  As the waves surged back it swept trees into the lake, many of which are still floating there.  Soon afterwards scientists discovered all visible life was gone from the lake;  bacteria, slime mold, and fungi took residence in its waters.  In five years the lake recovered and by the tenth year the lake was nearly normal again- wind, rain and snow melt helped it to restore.  We hiked down to the lake, and it was interesting to see how the land is now covered with wildflowers and small trees.  After the blast a blanket of pumice and ash 6 to 14 inches deep covered the valley- I wandered off the path once and immediately sunk down a few inches into the grey sand.  It is sad to see all the damage done by volcano, but nature does heal itself.  Interpretive signs at park informed us that downed logs stabilize the shores as well as make ponds for fish habitat.  The pumice keeps moisture in the soil during drought.  Seedlings grow better than at logged sites because there is no vegetation to compete for light and nutrients. Hiking back up the hill from the lake I could not help but appreciate the beauty among the fallen trees.

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Portland certainly has two gems worth visiting, which are its Japanese Garden and the Lan Su Chinese Garden.  While wandering the streets of downtown Portland we walked over to Chinatown, which is not at all like the Chinatown of Los Angeles.  The latter town has numerous Chinese stores and restaurants, and has a very colorful, bustling scene- which cannot at all be said for Portland's Chinatown.  However, within the Chinatown district is the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, also known as Lan Su.  The name represents the relationship between Portland and Suzhou, Portland's sister city in China's Jiangsu province which is famous for its beautiful gardens.  With the gardens is also a home designed in the 15th century Ming style by artisians and craftspeople from Suzhou.  Rocks in the garden are mined from a freshwater lake near Suzhou.

The garden features a bridged lake, open colonnades, and stone paths that wind through courtyards, and nine pavilions.  Doors and windows through out the garden and house form views within views, creating the illusion of infinite space within a single city block.  "Leak Windows" leak the view from one area of the garden to another.  In all there are 52 windows, each having a different pattern.  In the picture below there are windows behind the tree, which offer a view into another section of the garden

The rooms of the house, actually they are referred  to as the pavilions, are equally impressive as the gardens.  The scholar's study is a place where the men of the family studied as well as played.  Here such activities as writing, poetry, practicing calligraphy, as well as reading and admiring art collections took place.

I think that it was in this room where I encountered some fortune sticks.  I shook a cup of them and one fell out.  It said that I was soon going to attain a position which I have always wanted.  Strangely, that is true!  In March I will become a grandmother as Melissa and Spencer are expecting their first child.

The rockery, pictured above, is designed to appear as rugged mountains in the distance, with waterfalls and cascading streams.  An inscription, written in Chinese, on the mountain reads: " Ten Thousand Ravines Engulfed in Deep Clouds".  In one of the pavilions there are six panels which illustrate some ancient gardens of Suzhou.  One the back of one is written:  "Most cherished in this mundane world is a place without traffic; truly in the midst of a city there can be a mountain and forest".  That pretty much says it all about this garden.

Portland Japanese Garden

I had mentioned sometime in the past that we were in the Portland area for a family wedding.  The wedding of my niece Sarah and her fiance Mike occurred this past Sunday, in Oregon City. 

My three sisters, Linda,Gloria and Julia few in for the occasion and brother John drove in from Walla Walla,Washington.  It was great that at least five out of our family of nine living siblings made the occasion.

Sarah is the daughter of our brother Leon, who passed in 1995.  His wife Marta moved out Washington to be with her family and consequently we have not seen much of them over the years.  There are now three grandchildren on the scene.  It was good reconnecting with everyone again. 

Speaking of the cycles of life and death, pictured above are the Heavenly Falls in the Portland Japanese Garden.  Our guide for the gardens informed us that the man-made falls start out from a large body of water (life) and end in a trickle (death).  The gardens are a place of tranquility and awesome beauty.  Symbolism abounds in its five separate garden styles, authentic Japanese Tea House, wandering streams and green walkways.  Plants and tree have been carefully pruned and kept at human scale so the visitor feels at one with the environment.  The gardens have an ancient history influenced by Shinto, Buddhist and Taoist philosophies.  In the Sand and Stone Garden simple weathered stones rise up from a bed of sand which has been raked to suggest the sea. This garden style is typically found in Zen monasteries.

 

The latter garden, as well as the Flat Garden are the more modern gardens in the Japanese tradition.  After we saw those gardens our tour ended at the Pavilion where there is currently an exhibition of Japanese art.  At this overlook we had a good view of Mount Hood.  Thankfully it was a clear day!

Washington Park Attractions

It has been frustrating that I have not been able to get on-line due to the fact that our computer has been in a repair shop.  Nothing majorly wrong with it, just a software problem which took the technician several days to figure out.  We are still in Portland and keeping quite busy, between touring around and visiting family.  Last week we went to Washington Park which, like our Forest Park back home, has a number of attractions including a zoo and a variety of museums.  We purchased an admission ticket to the zoo and then boarded the zoo train for a ride over to Portland's International Rose Test Garden.  The garden is one of the largest in the nation and features over 6,000 rose bushes and 550 varieties.  There are miniature, tree, shrub and hybrids of many kinds- low bushes as well as climbers at least 6 feet in height. The garden rests on a hillside and is surrounded by tall conifers.  It is quite the setting for such an abundance of beauty!

The Oregon Zoo also sits in a similar setting, among tall pine trees with deep lush green ravines surrounding it.  The zoo advertises that it is green in more ways than one.  It is currently in the midst of a major construction project and that seemed to limit the variety of animals which we were able to see.  We did however, see some exhibits and animals which we had never seen before, as the Mandrill Monkey.

His snout is quite colorful!   He lives in dense rainforests and is an endangered because his home is being destroyed by farms, logging and roads.  He is also hunted for the bush meat trade.  The zoo recently had the birth of its 28th Asian elephant in the past 50 years, a record for North American zoos.  Baby Lily was born about 9 months ago.  She is pictured below nursing from her mother Rose-Tu.

Most interesting to us at the Oregon Zoo was the Rodriguez fruit bat exhibit.  The are quite rare and hail from an island in the western part of the Indian Ocean.  It was hard to pull ourselves away from them as they were actively engaged in a variety of activities, including feeding and mating.  What was interesting to us was that they washed themselves after feeding. It is another creature affected by deforestation.

As you can see in the picture above, the bat wraps himself around the fruit as he feeds from it.  We also saw another bat hanging upside down with his feet clamped on a piece of melon.  In Washington park is also an authentic Japanese Garden, I will write on that in my next posting.