Oregon Coast: Return to Bend

Friday morning, after two delightful days and the "worst dinner ever" at the delightfully cool Oregon Coast in Yachats, we needed to pack up and head on our way back to Bend in blazing hot Central Oregon (It would be 106F when we got home.)

The first order of business, however, was to walk over to the coffee shop next door for a cup of coffee and a couple of bagels for breakfast. The wait in line, like the day before, was a solid 20-25 minutes. For coffee fiends such as Ann and I, the coffee on offer was just OK and certainly did not merit the long wait. When we return, we have got to find a better, less crowded coffee option, if such exists.

I had heard nice things about the Bob Creek Wayside just south of Cape Perpetua and wanted to stop off and visit it on Wednesday on our way into Yachats. But at that point, we were tired and ready to get to Yachats and the sun in the west and high tide were against us. I made a mental note to stop on our way back home when we would be fresh and the sun in the east and the low tide would be in our favor for photography.

And so our first stop was at Bob Creek where the small parking lot was entirely full of perhaps 8 vehicles from people who had stopped to take advantage of the low tide. A major draw for Bob Creek is the unique horizontal slabs of basalt whose tops have a fascinating texture thanks to the waves that wash over them. I've seen a lot of seaside rock, but nothing like this. There is also large Native American shell midden that is easily viewed (but illegal to trespass on, so stay off). Speaking of staying off: if the rocks are covered in green matter, stay off or you are going to slip and fall.

Unique Basalt Formation

More of Same, But Deadly Slippery

If Rocks Could Have Waves in Them...

Looking Upstream at Bob Creek

Bob Creek Flowing into Pacific Ocean

Patterns in the Sand (Enlarge for Detail)

Tide Pools are Everywhere on This Basalt Slab

Stunning Marine Life in This Pool

Green Anemones

Ochre Sea Star and Anemones

Lots and Lots of Sea Stars, Perhaps 20

Along the Bank, Large Patches of Salt-Tolerant
Magnificent Monkeyflower, Erythranthe grandis

Monkeyflower Detail

Dock, Rumex sp.

After a half and hour or so poking around the rocks at Bob Creek, we saddled up and headed south in the direction of Florence. Just north of Florence, the beach is bordered by dunes that run all the way down into Florence. We stopped at a couple of overlooks to view the dunes.

Dunes North of Florence

Once in Florence, we turned inland alongside the Siuslaw River on OR 126 bound for Eugene over in the Willamette Valley. It was our bad luck to have one of those monster jacked-up fume-spewing diesel dualie (6-wheel) GMC pickups directly behind us in the turn lane for 126. It was a nightmare having the guy behind me. You know the kind of driver I am talking about, the one who rides your ass constantly sticking out into the oncoming lane trying to find a passing zone.

After a few miles, thankfully the guy got past me and proceeded to harass the hell out of the next couple of cars in front of us: all this on a 2-lane highway through the mountains. Really? How long is it going to be before every car on the highway gets stacked up behind a log truck? For all the effort this idiot expended, we were directly behind him some 55 miles later when he turned off 126 in downtown Eugene. We continued straight on deeper into downtown to find McKenzie Brewing for a bite and a beer.

In McMinnville, we always enjoyed McKenzie beers when they were on tap at our local taphouse, but we have not encountered any since moving to Bend. So, I was eager to go there and taste what they were doing to refresh my memory of how good they were. Palates do change and really, were they as good as I remember? Indeed, the Hazy IPA and the Twisted Meniscus IPA were delightful, though the number of beers on tap was limited. The bartender said that they, like the entire service industry, are having problems staffing the brewery.

This Girl Loves Her McKenzie Hazy IPA

After lunch, we kept heading east to I-5 where we took a quick detour south to reach OR 58, the highway crossing the Cascades at Willamette Pass, a road that we have never traveled. Shortly out of the Eugene area, we found ourselves driving on the south side of Dexter Reservoir near the town of Lowell. I saw a covered bridge and stopped to check it out. Ann took advantage of reservoir to take a dip to try to cool off in the heat that was already blazing over 100 degrees.

Yellow California Poppies, Eschscholzia californica, at Dexter Reservoir

Lowell Dam and Dexter Reservoir

We continued east on OR 58 along the long skinny Lookout Point Lake formed by the Lowell Dam to the town of Oakridge, where we got gassed up. I felt sorry for the kids filling tanks in the blazing heat, but the highschoolers were hanging with all their friends between cars and looked to be having a good time.

From Oakridge, we continued to climb into The Cascades with Salt Creek ever on our right. The road started climbing steeply and we got backed up behind a couple of B-train gas tankers rocking up the hills at 15 miles per hour. Ultimately we got beyond them and I saw a brown sign for Salt Creek Falls. Not having the faintest clue about the falls or how long of a walk it would be to go see them, we pulled into the Salt Creek Falls Day Use Area, once again making good use of our Oregon State Parks annual pass.

The falls proved to be mere feet off the parking lot and were stunning. With a straight drop of 286 feet, they are the second highest falls in Oregon. Who knew? What great fortune we had to stop here at random. In walking along the path through the woods to the falls observation area, I noticed several rhododendrons growing in the woods. Back on the East Coast, rhododendrons are everywhere. I make special mention of them now because these are the first that I have ever seen in Oregon. I know that they are the state flower of our neighbors in Washington, but they are scarce in the parts of Oregon we have visited.

Salt Creek Falls

Salt Creek Below Falls

Pacific Rhododendron, Rhododendron macrophyllum

Edge of the Falls

From the falls, we continued east on 58 still climbing until we hit Willamette Pass right at the edge of Odell Lake. All along the road leading to and from the pass and along the north shore of Odell Lake are viewpoints with excellent vistas of Diamond Peak, a large volcano in the wilderness area of the same name. The PCT skirts Diamond Peak on its way north to cross through Willamette Pass.

Diamond Peak, Snow Covered Still at the End of July

Odell Lake with Diamond Peak in Background

Beating the 100+ Heat

We kept motoring downhill and east. We could have taken the Crescent Cutoff (and/or the Cascade Lakes Highway) at Crescent Lake to head back to Bend. At this point though, we were ready to be home and decided to take 58 all the way into 97 and then 97 north into Bend, figuring that it would be the fastest route, if also the longest. We arrived back home uneventfully, but with outdoor temperatures at 106F and possibly hotter later in the afternoon, our upstairs was blazing hot. It would take two full days to get it back down to a livable temperature. We sorely missed the cool weather at the coast.