I woke up to overcast, but it cleared by 9 AM. However, at 1 PM the fog started rolling in. In between I was able to take in and photography when I think is the most stunning part of the Oregon Coast, although I can't be sure because so far it is the only part I have been able to see clearly and I still have the southern fourth of the coast to go. The area in question is from Lincoln City south to Newport. Here are three pictures.
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| Oregon Coast from Otter Rock Overlook |
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Otter Rock Overlook
Indentation into Sandstone Cliffs |
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Basalt Outcrop Known as Gull Rock
Off Cape Foulweather |
Cape Foulweather was named by Captain James Cook when he came upon it in bad weather in 1778. He failed to note the Columbia River on this voyage and thus did not lay claim to it. Part of the story of why the Columbia River is known as the Columbia River.
Continuing my pursuit of the trail of
Guinness Book of World Records I stopped at Depoe Bay, which holds the record of being the "Smallest Navigable Harbor in the World." These Oregonians really like their records. Here are the pictures:
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Entry Channel to Depoe Bay
Through Bridge Carrying US Highway 101 |
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Depoe Bay
World's Smallest Navigable Harbor |
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| It Even Has Its Own Coast Guard Station |
Driving along the coast, I kept seeing these "Evacuation Route" signs. I guffawed when I figured out they were for tsunami evacution, thinking of the comparative destructive power of our hurricanes, which are the cause of evacuations along the Gulf Coast. I also noted that the "Leaving Tsunami Evacuation Zone" signed were on the roadsides at least 300 feet above the level of the ocean. But then I read my geology book and found out there is a trench offshore parallel to the Oregon and Washington coasts. Trenches are were earthquakes occur. Apparently they seldom happen along this trench, but when they do, they are whoppers. The last such earthquake was about a 9.0 (Richter scale) on January 26, 1700, at about 9 PM. (I don't know how they know this--I just read it in a book by a professor of geology). Since they have determined that these mammoth earthquakes occur every 300 to 600 years, the next one will occur any time now or during the next 300 years. Therefore, we have our tsunami evacuation routes in the Northwest.
One last thing. There is a famous chain of chowder places along the Oregon Coast known as Mo's. It is famous not only for its clam chowder, which a lot of people say is the "best", but also because of some famous happenings. Scenes shot from the main restaurant in Newport appeared in the movie
Never Give An Inch, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. But of more significance to we boomers, at the Otter Rock location, a stool upon which sat Bruce Springsteen on June 11, 1987, is enshrined. I didn't get to see the stool, but I did get this picture of the place:
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Mo's Chowder House
Otter Rock, Oregon
Site of Springsteen Stool Shrine |
Mileage: 127. Cumulative mileage: 3,521.
