Our plan for our Fifth Annual Sister Trip, my sister and I, was to stay at Heceta Head B & B for 9 days, visit all the lighthouses in Oregon, two in California and two in Washington, and stop at 12 quilt shops. As a plan, that’s not too bad. When we arrived at Heceta, they told us the light was out! I tried very hard not to be too disappointed. After all, I was finally there. First thing we did was walk up to the lighthouse. There was so much sea foam, that the wind was picking it up and blowing it like snow.

Heceta Head lighthouse is just as beautiful as they say.


Since the light was off, I tried to think of something positive about that. The best I came up with was maybe a unique picture.

I couldn’t see the broken parts, but according to our favorite volunteer Leslie, the problem is in this area.

Our first full day we took a plane trip and saw Umpqua, Coquille, Cape Arago and Cape Blanco and lots of coast.


We explored south first over several days.

Wonderful way to see the coast and lighthouses. Coos Air, $150 per hour for up to 3 passengers. We went back and saw each light from the ground also.
Umpqua River - you need to see this one at night, spectacular! The picture doesn’t quite convey the truth. You can take in a sunset while you wait for dark.



Cape Arago – pronounced air-uh-go according to our pilot.


Coquille River lighthouse – park service took us inside. We had our own private tour, an advantage of offseason visits, when you can contact someone.


Cape Blanco, our land visit was difficult. Rain! And the wind was blowing so much that the car was bouncing while we sat in park. Picture taking method was this, I would position car and when my sister was ready, roll the window down, quick click, and right back up. Reposition car and repeat.

I really wanted to see Crescent City and St. George. Our view of St. George was disappointing, but it will have to do for now. Currently working on talking the husband into an Oregon vacation, seeing southern Oregon (the part I felt we really shorted) and hopefully a helicopter trip to St. George Reef.
Crescent City was beautiful, but I bet it is even more so in sunshine.


St. George Reef – pretty windy here also.

After seeing all the lights to the south, we started north. First lighthouse Cleft of the Rock. We had breakfast Saturday morning with Jim Gibbs neighbors. He sounds like quite a character.

Yaquina Bay was open and had plenty of visitors.

Yaquina Head is newly restored and is back to the original colors, doesn’t match the Harbour Lights model anymore. Yaquina is pronounced – ya-quinn-uh (quinn as in Anthony Quinn)

Never miss a sunset!

The Devil’s Punchbowl is a little north of Yaquina Head. Pretty cool place, distant view of the lighthouse and great scenery. Continuing north we drove the Three Capes Loop, only part I might skip. Just be sure to see Cape Meares at the north end of the loop.
Cape Meares and nearby.




While we were at Cape Meares, the sun came out. I had been worried about seeing Tillamook with rain or fog, so we booked it north. It was worth it!
Tillamook lighthouse and nearby view.


We had driven the Three Capes Loop and seen Capes Meares and Tillamook, all in one day. This was the only flaw in our plan to stay at Heceta and travel from there. We decided to continue north and spend the night in Illwaco, WA so we could see two Washington lights in the morning. I don’t recommend crossing the Astoria bridge for the first time a night. It is crazy. You go up, turn, continue up, turn again, up, turn again…… I wasn’t driving as I was very tired, swear I wasn’t drinking, but felt like I was falling. I have looked on the internet for a picture, but none show the whole thing, or even the turning parts. I guess you had to be there. Next day when I drove it wasn’t nearly as bad.
North Head lighthouse – the keepers houses are in great shape, the lighthouse is in poor shape.

Cape Disappointment – such a grand old fellow! The trail was muddy and slick, so my sister gave up and went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (a must visit). Shortly after she turned back the trail ended at a steep, paved Coast Guard road to the light.


We saw 14 lighthouses (and visited 12 quilt shops) and had the last two days to just relax at Heceta.

I highly recommend staying at the B & B more than a night or two. The breakfasts are unbelievable and the people are great. But the atmosphere, that’s the thing I can’t explain. This was my view every morning from the bench in front of the house. I can still close my eyes and see it.


I finally got the last 2 pictures to work. I couldn't skip that last one, I took that picture just about 3 times every day. I love that view.

Thanks for your help Dave.

Thanks for sharing Laura. It's a whole perspective I've never seen in photos before.

Great job Laura, I enjoyed your pics and narrative!

Thanks, Laura, for taking us along, it brought back a lot of great memories of our tour down the Northwest coastline a few years back, flying into Seattle and driving to Sacramento for the West Regional in September of 2002!

Road to the West Regional Day 1 & 2

Roaqd to the West Regional Day 3

Road to the West Regional Day 4

Road to the West Regional Day 5

Road to the West Regional Day 6

Road to the West Regional Day 7

Road to the West Regional Day 8

Great pics, Laura. Thanks for sharing. Judy

Paul, I had read your 2002 posts before the trip, doing my research, but its very interesting to look them again now, and see the changes at some of the lighthouses. Yaquina Head is now black and white, while in your pictures its still the Coast Guard colors. Coquille River now has a red base. And your picture with the fresnel still in the lantern at Point Arena....
Roland, I'm not sure what you mean. Do I take strange pictures?
Thanks for the compliments all!

Thanks for sharing your trip, Laura. Great job with the pictures and the narrative. Sounds like overall you had reasonably decent weather. The sea foam snow sounds kind of interesting.

I think Roland is commenting on your pictures shot from the plane. A lot of those are not ones we get to see that view very often, and they really help put things in perspective. One good example is your photo of Cape Arago.

I really like what I will call your scenic's, they are the really wide shots establishing not only the light but the whole location.. In news video photography we use wide, medium and tight shots to tell the story and keep it interesting and sometimes the photographer will get way back to establish the surroundings around the story. You varied your shots in this thread in much the same way. As Dave said, Great job!

We have been to the Oregon Coast many times and have stayed at Heceta Head B&B numerous times also. You wrote... But the atmosphere, that’s the thing I can’t explain
My way to describe staying there is with one word..."MAGICAL" When you leave there you know one thing for sure...you will return someday.

I love all your pictures and I have to agree that you put many of the lighthouses in great "perspective." Especially Cape Arago. Laura, thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Great pics, Laura...some thoughts from a native Oregonian:

You were very lucky to get some sunshine, let alone some good flying weather, up there this time of year.

Beautiful North Head sure could use some tender loving care...I'm the last person here to be promoting GLOWs but this is one light that could benefit from the proceeds...with North Head being the original symbol/logo of the company, it's a shame HL hasn't redone the hideous original in its proper glory.

At one time during their constructions/completions, both Heceta Head and Cape Meares bluffs were completely deforested...if you investigate on the web/books, you can find pics...and the original twin lightkeepers houses on Cape Meares were magnificent structures...

Did you sniff out any HL dealers while you were up there? About the only ones left in Oregon are along it's magnificent coast...

Not at all! I just meant that seeing all of these lighthouses from different angles, with both tight and wide shots showing the entire landscape is very rare. It really puts the lighthouse, as well as the Oregon coast, in perspective. Makes it easy to compare the East Coast landscape with the West Coast landscape, and how the lighthouses fit into that arrangement. I am complimenting you on a job very well done!!!

I guess showing the setting of the lighthouse just seemed natural, and part of learning about that lighthouse. Also I really love the ocean and the differences in the coast. I didn't think it unusual. Roland, I just didn't understand what you meant.
Rock, we did find Habour Lights at the Interpretive Center at Yaquina Head and a dealer in Winchester Bay, Paul Warner at Lighthouse Gallery. We spent at least 2 hours with Paul, he joked that the longer he kept us talking, the more we bought. He had some great stories, and many (probably all) rare Harbour Lights models. I ordered an Old Minots Ledge from him, but he has since told me that Harbour Lights is not shipping that one due to a problem with the base light. There is a Umpqua Lens on its way to me though.
The weather was not bad, I left 9 degrees here so it was an improvement. We heard that 101 was bumper to bumper in the summer, so we would not have been able to see all we did if it wasn't off season. Park personnel, volunteers and Harbour Lights dealers all had more time to talk, and we listened and asked questions. For example, the park guy at Lewis and Clark took the time to find a picture for me of the original 2 story Cape Cod dwelling for Cape Disappointment and show me the location on a map.
One thing I forgot to mention...Heceta B & B cookbook should be coming out in the next few weeks. They will notify everyone on their mailing list. I want to make the whole orange bread first!

Wow...what a trip Laura. For February, the weather doesn't look too bad.

John and I have tried to do that trip twice and have had to cancel twice. The last time it was all planned out and ready for our flight into S.F. and fly home from Portland. The week we were supposed to leave, John ended up with a cactus spine embedded in the bone on top of his hand. He landed in the hospital for hand surgery instead of on a plane to the west coast.

I still want to do that trip. I need to plan a stay at Heceta Head as well.

Thanks for taking the time to post your great pictures and share your adventure with the rest of us.

Laura,

Great photos and narrative. Esther and I did much of that same trip a few years back. We did not get to Cape Arago and Tillamook was not visible due to weather conditions.

We did it in June- possibly before schools were closed- and had great weather and little traffic.

I really like the Pacific Northwest and have often said if I was ever to move from NJ it would be up in that area from Northern California to British Columbia.

Dennis

Oregon coast today Sunday, March 8th, was a snowy drive down HWY 101 [img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/3340500340_18d092ed85.jpg?v=0[/img]

Really nice job of photography and narration to take us all along, Laura.

I made that trip From SF to Portland in 1996 visiting HL Dealers and Lighthouses. (There were lots of both then.)

You're going to have to do a post on your other avocation -- quilting.

Breathtaking views-more breathtaking in person...I'm sure!
Thank you for sharing both your photos and your narrative with all of us!
I have Oregon lights on my wish list...so I really appreciate being able to visit without being there and see what I have to look forward to.
Great job!

Laura, you and your sister missed the sad story this past weekend there, with a fin whale beaching itself. They ended up burying the whale right there after it died.

Oregon News

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We wanted to see whales while we were there, but not that way! I was looking at other articles about this whale, and found that in 1970, down in Florence, the Highway Department blew up a dead whale with dynamite. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGVkHl-nBhE