The Oregon Coast – Land of Milk and Honey

It’s been several years since I visited the Oregon Coast. In my mind, it competes with the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia that is featured in many travel brochures.

We booked an AirBNB on the beachfront, managed by Shanti, and spent a delightful week in Yachats. Its pronounced Yahats, I believe, and is a small uncommercial town sitting midway on the Oregon Coast. It’s such a beautiful part of the world that I like to call it the land of milk and honey.

Seal Rock that we visited on one of only two rainy days. The churning waves made it an indelible experience.

Here is another pic of a wave breaking in a blowhole, accompanied by a loud deep whoompf sound. Then Kim wanted to see it up close.

My best pic of a blowhole I didn’t know was there – I was taking a pic of the seagull when the blowhole erupted. How lucky was that!

One more spray — at Devils Churn. I can stand and watch these things for hours!

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There are many road turnoffs to beaches. Some are sandy, but many others are rocky.

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Kim was learning to surf at one of the beaches. She said she needed a rough surfboard because the surf would be rough!

We discovered wild blackberries on one of our hikes. They are reddish before turning black.

You can find agates along the Oregon beaches, and we saw a lot of rock-hounders while we were there. But September is the hardest month to find them, because winter storms are needed for the ocean to churn up the agates and sweep them ashore.

I finally found a large agate in a hidden beach (pictured here) next to the main Strawberry beach.

The beach was hard to get to over slippery rocks, and was lined with large driftwood logs. While I was washing my agate, a wave circled around behind me, and came up to my mid-calf as I was running backwards to escape.

There are occasional signs along the beaches that say “Watch out for Sneaker Waves – they can carry you out and drown you.” In Aussie we called them King Waves. In Yachats several years ago two young men were swept into the surf by a sneaker wave, but their buddies couldn’t help get them out of the wild, cold surf. They died in three minutes.

The ocean scenery was grand in many viewing spots marked along the highway.

The next pic is a dark beach below a lighthouse, called Cobble Beach, because all the beach consisted of large black pebbles, some as big as footballs and others small as marbles. No sand at all.

Of several lighthouses we saw, this was the prettiest.

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Mary Ann and daughter Lisa.

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One last note. On our way home, we diverted to Ouray in southwest Colorado. September is when the quaking aspens turn golden yellow. I’ve seen them before, many times, but these were the best I’ve ever seen near Ouray.

We are grateful, and thank God for a safe trip to experience the marvels of his creation.

The Gray Nomad.
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And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying,
Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast,
and that thine hand might be with me,
and that thou wouldest keep [me] from evil, that it may not grieve me!
And God granted him that which he requested. [KJV – 1 Chronicles, chapter 4].
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