Wood's Prairie Travels

What may you ask is a “Spouting Horn?” It is a narrow crevice in rocks along a shoreline where waves hit in a way that causes a spout of water to erupt. Depot Bay in Oregon is well-known for its spouting horn which is right along Hwy 101, the main street through town. On a day when the waves are big, the spray from the spouting horn drifts across Hwy 101. We lucked out on this trip to drive through town on a day with giant waves, so we got thoroughly wet from the spray while trying to catch “the shot”. The spouting horn in Depot Bay is a crevice that is at an angle from the shoreline, so waves have to roll in from a specific direction to cause the eruption of spray. On a sunny day you can see a rainbow in the resulting spray. I should have taken a photo of my sunglasses afterward. They were encrusted in salty spray drops.

This trip was not one where we encountered some of the more elusive animals on the continent, but we had a few visitors on our quick trip through Oregon. For example, on the shore of Diamond Lake, one little duck kept swimming towards us. Like many of the animals, she was probably expecting us to give her part of our sandwiches. Gray jays, often called “Camp Robbers”, watched us from their perch to see if we might leave a trail of crumbs. Similarly, this squirrel kept watch to see if we might drop food that she could add to her pile of pinecones. On the Rogue River, we surprised a little black bear who was swimming across the river. Needless to say, when the boat approached, he swam faster. Once ashore, he scrambled up the bank and disappeared in the brush. Also, on the Rogue, we saw a seal relaxing on a submerged log. She was just sunning herself and kept posing for photos. This golden mantled ground squirrel sat still long enough for me to battle the autofocus on my camera

Just north of Newport is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse park. We lucked out to be there on a gorgeous day with wind that created enormous waves. The Lighthouse has the quintessential architecture that makes it both a functional and beautiful beacon sitting out on the headland. A plaque on the light reads, “To those lost at sea with special affection for the fishermen of the Pacific Northwest.” The gusty wind at times made it difficult to hold the camera still, but I kept at it until my fingers got too cold to adjust the lens. Of course, by that time I had hundreds of pictures to sort through.  It was fun to seee the huge rollers crashing into the rock outcroppings, many of the waves splashed clear over the top of the rocks. In addition to the lighthouse, the beach below is very unique.  The basalt rocks have been washed back and forth up and down the beach for millennia resulting in a black cobble beach that makes and unusual clattering-roaring sound when waves recede. This is a “Must

The southern Oregon coast has some beautiful towering cliffs, offshore haystacks, and hidden beaches. However, one never knows what the weather conditions will be. Pat knows from all his years at Ilwaco that if the weather is warm inland, you will likely have fog on the coast. That held true for our travel to the northern California coast. However, over the years we have found we encounter some of the nicest weather at the coast during spring and early fall. This trip we lucked out and didn’t need all the cold weather clothing that we brought with us. In fact, it was so warm that Pat bought a pair of shorts during one stop. Not a bad problem to have on a fall adventure. We both love the west coast ocean with its perpetual thunder and crashing waves. We find it interesting how the water conditions can drastically change from one day to the next.  Even from one beach to the next, we encountered a variety of wind and waves. This trip we had quite a contrast between days. One day the wav

About thirty years ago we had taken a jet boat ride on the Rogue River, when the kids were little. As we neared Gold Beach, Oregon, we thought we would take another trip on the river. Jerry’s Jet Boats is the place to go. A four-hour trip takes you up 32 miles to the town of Agnes for a lunch stop. The ride is a great fun. Between the spins, and splashes, and turns, the boat flies along the water. In places the water depth is only about 12 inches. I happened to be on an outside edge and could often lean over to peer at the colorful stones on the bottom of the river. In addition to speeding us along the Rogue, the skipper stopped at various places to tell us about the history of the river and the people along it. He also shared snippets of information about the different birds, plants, and rocks that we saw.  The lunch at the Cougar Lane Lodge was a delicious barbeque! They smoke the meats onsite and prepare all the food. There was the typical BBQ ribs, pulled pork, and brisket, along

In northern California we travelled through the forest giants, the Coast Redwoods. These beautiful trees can grow to almost 400 feet, making them the tallest trees on Earth. In addition to their enormous height, some of the trees can be as much as 26 feet in diameter. As we wandered under the canopy on soft duff trails, it was easy to imagine ourselves stepping back in time. Sunlight filtered through from above and sent beams onto the ferns far below. Most of the trees are between 500 and 700 years old. However, the oldest trees in this forest are over 2,000 years old! These trees were growing when Christ’s disciples were sharing the stories about his life. Redwoods live in the moist coastal habitat found in relatively few areas on Earth. The foggy climate of the northern California Coast is one of those. As we travelled down the coast, we definitely found fog hanging along the shoreline. In addition to keeping the Redwoods damp, the wispy sky adds a mystique to photos. We thoroughly

As we neared the southwest corner of Oregon, we happened to have a Harvest Host stopover just outside of Cave Junction at Bridgeview Vineyard. This family-owned winery was started in the 1982 and has the third generation currently working to maintain their heritage. We can attest to the fact that Bridgeview has a delicious assortment of wines which are made entirely from grapes grown in their vineyard. Our favorite was the dry Reisling, but the Chardonay was a close second. The owner, Renee, freely shared his knowledge of the different wines they produce and what goes in to making Bridgeview’s unique taste. We were given permission to wander through the vineyard and sample the different varieties of grapes hanging on the vines. Although we are novice wine drinkers, we could easily taste in the grapes the variety of wine they would eventually become.  The Covid affect: While chatting with Renee, he explained that they are still recovering from the affect of Covid. While people were

Crater Lake National Park is just a few minutes from our camp at Diamond Lake. Our first glimpse from the rim of the caldera made one of the lake’s famous attributes undeniable, it is a gorgeous blue color. Later in the day we researched just what color would describe what we saw. Prussian blue was the closest we could come to describing the hue. The early morning sun glittered off the lake’s surface as we gazed in wonder.  The lake is about six miles in diameter and Wizard Island, off the near shore, is a well-known feature. As we began our day exploring this National Park, we wondered what else would we learn during our stay. Why so blue? According to park information, the color is due to two things – depth and cleanliness. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in North America and is said to be the cleanest large body of water in the world! Formed when 12,000-foot Mount Mazama erupted 7,700 years ago, the crater eventually filled with water that is only precipitation and runoff from sno

We found our next camp along the shore of Diamond Lake with the towering Mt. Thielson keeping watch over us. A cloudy first day gave us some rainbows and puffy pink clouds. It seemed to us that the mountain looked an awful lot like the mountain that The Grinch lives in, so we kept watch for him. This was a great campground and our site was right on the lake. During the day, we had frequent visitors in the form of gray jays, squirrels, ducks, and geese. Later that night, the sparks from our campfire flew away into the black night and brought back with them a brilliant sunrise. As the sun rose behind Mt. Thielson, first there was a glimmer, then there was a silvery rim, and finally the sun rose, a white diamond above the black mountain.  The suns rays spread more diamonds across the lake surface.  What a beautiful way to start our day.

 As we began a short fall trip, initially we didn’t plan to write a blog. However, as Pat pointed out, “It’s a good way to keep track of our adventures". So, we begin... Our first day was a trek down I-5 through Oregon. Once past the always questionable freeway traffic in Portland, we cruised on down to Eugene where we headed east on Hwy 58. It’s a busy road that connects to Bend but is a scenic drive through a conifer forest. That night we camped at the Black Canyon Campground which was practically empty. Although the name is a bit forbidding, it was a nice campground alongside the Willamette River. This far upriver, it was barely more than a stream and provided a nice way to cool off on a rather warm, 85 degree, day. The road noise and occasional train across the valley didn’t disturb our sleep. It's always nice to get back into the woods... 

Now that we are back home in the Pacific Northwest having travelled 7,400 miles this trip, we’ve been reflecting on our journey. Frequently, as we drove through various portions of ten different states we would ask the question, “Why here?” Why stop at this particular spot in the middle of an arid desert with no water in sight? Or why build your home on this particular bayou with no nearby town? Some locations have obvious reasons to stop, picturesque mountains or places with clean rivers flowing nearby. Many times it is likely that the place for your home is where you have family connections. Or maybe it is because a job opportunity arose. However, it made us wonder as we wandered .  Another frequent question of ours as we drove through little towns was, “Why is this town flourishing while that one a few miles back had all its stores closed up?” Is it the location?  Maybe it’s the natural resources of the area, but then why the difference from one little town to its nearby neighbo