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Published: September 27th 2008
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Columbia River Bridge
The middle of this bridge is the stateline for Washington and Oregon My trip from Ocean Shores to Newport South Beach, Oregon was quite pleasant, although the mist started to roll in as I approached the coast and by the time I had got set up it was quite cool. The next morning was the same so I put on my wind suit and went for a walk on the beach, which is just 150 yards away and was lovely. After a shower I drove into Newport and stopped at the Chamber of Commerce for area information as well as the proverbial “where is Wal-Mart?” Incidentally, local folks frequently apologize that their Wal-Mart isn’t a Wal-Mart Superstore! Sign of the times I guess.
The next morning was the same, but I decided that I wasn’t going to sit home for the next ten days so after my beach walk and shower I headed out down the coast. The beach in Newport is perfect for building sand castles and sun bathing but within a couple of miles the beach disappears and the volcanic rock that forms a lot of the Oregon coast meets the ocean. I drove about 25 miles to Cape Perpetua and the Devil’s Churn. The churn began as a small fracture
South Beach Coastline
The sand is great for building sandcastles and great to walk in. You can see where the waves break against the coast during storms in the rock but the constant pounding of the waves have transformed the fracture into a chasm. I was standing with a group of folks looking down on the thundering waves when someone called “Whale” and sure enough there was not one but maybe three whales just about 200 yards away from our viewpoint, quite visible to the naked eye. I stood and watched for about thirty minutes and went home intent on seeing more whales.
The next morning was still cloudy and cool so I decided to explore Newport, which was named after Newport, Rhode Island, and looks inviting. It is know as the “Dungeness Crab Capital of the World” and I hadn’t had any crab or clam chowder in Oregon yet!! Newport has a historic working harbor and waterfront district so that’s where I headed.
I was beginning to get a bit weary of the cloudy sky and thankfully the next day was beautiful. Depoe Bay is just about 15 miles north of South Beach and, I was told, there are whales there. Depoe Bay is a beautiful quaint little place; a lot of effort has been made to create an old-time fishing village atmosphere. The Oregon State
Matter of Time
I wonder if this tree canopy will survive the winter storms Parks Service have built a Whale Center out into the bay, three full-time Rangers are in the center to answer questions about whales; they obviously all love their job. There are two levels of viewing platforms and lots of information. I did not know that whales do not have teeth, (at least grey and humpbacks) their mouths are full of what I can only describe as coconut matting. The one ranger told couple of ladies and I how intelligent whales are, giving as an example a hump back whale that had been entangled in fish net rope. The rope had become completely ensnared in and around the whale’s mouth. The Rangers patrol the coast daily and came across this poor whale and managed to get close enough to cut the rope around its snout loose. Then the whale opened its mouth so that the guy could cut the rope out. When the job was complete the whale dropped down and then came back to the boat and gently nudged the boat as if to say “thank you.”
The viewing platforms are really great, five stations/level each equipped with binoculars. I watched for maybe five minutes before I saw my first
Breakers
Funny, if someone in the next RV runs their air conditioner it disturbs me but I could sleep peacefully through the sound of the breakers spout. There was a whale less than 100 yards from the Center, then another. This time of year is prime time to see Grey Whales up close because they are feeding close to the coastline, so I determined that I would go on a whale watching trip from Depoe Bay on Monday.
I spent the weekend doing laundry, cleaning and watching the Ryder Cup. Monday morning was another lovely morning so off I went for my whale watching trip. The little boat pulled away from the harbor at noon and I was determined to get a good watching spot so I positioned myself up front and center! We must’ve had 25 sightings presumably the same four whales over and over. The sea was quite rough so I white knuckled my left hand while I took picture after picture - 78 in all, mostly of waves but I did get a couple of tails and the back of one whale. It was a great experience.
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