CAPE FOULWEATHER & DEPOE BAY

A drive north from Newport was the plan yesterday.   The first stop was at Cape Foulweather, a prominent viewpoint situated about 500 feet above the ocean.  The gift shop is perched on the edge of the cliff, and several of the windows inside the building offer a great view of the Oregon coastline.  The last couple of days have been overcast, but the fog has been high enough, where there's still pretty good visibility.

 This view is from Cape Foulweather, looking south toward Yaquina Head lighthouse.

Next stop was the small seaside community of Depoe Bay.  Advertised as the "world's smallest harbor", it is indeed quite small, but much larger than the harbor at Ninilchik, Alaska, where we took some pictures a few weeks ago.  Probably the most unique part of Depoe Bay, is the harbor entrance, and the Hwy 101 bridge over the small channel.  We were there yesterday at low tide, which makes the rock sided entrance even narrower.

 The Coasties have a small base at Depoe Bay, and we watched one of their two boats leaving the harbor.

We made one more stop on the way back to Newport, at another one of the original bridges built back in the 1920's.  The bridge over Rocky Creek, pictured below, was part of the old highway, and has since been bypassed by the new highway realignment.  All of these reinforced concrete, arch style bridges were designed by an engineer named Conde McCulloch, who believed that the bridges on the Oregon Coast needed to be more than functional.  His designs reflect a certain character, that enhances the beauty of the Pacific Coastal environment.

The weather has turned slightly more precipitous, as the fog has turned to a drizzle.  I started washing some of the Alaska dirt off the motor home, but that's on hold until the moisture goes away.  The girls took off for the small town of Toledo, about 10 miles east of here, for guess what?  If you guessed a quilt shop, you just hit the jackpot.  That Guiness World Record is getting closer to being broken almost every day!