North of Brookings

On Tuesday we left the trailer in Brookings and drove north. We went as far north as the Cape Blanco lighthouse and drove out to the point for the tour. This lighthouse is on Oregon's westernmost point, windiest point, it's the tallest lighthouse in the state (245 Feet), first to be staffed by a woman, longest continuously operating, etc., etc., etc..

There were a number of volunteers giving the tours and they were a friendly and interesting group. One gentleman was going on at length about how everyone should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon. The volunteer guide at the top of the lighthouse was wearing Birkenstocks (or “Air Jesus” as Francine calls them) and a hand fashioned wire peace symbol around his neck. Connie mentioned the firearms discussion we'd left behind in the museum and this fellow said “Oh, I know who that was. He's from Idaho”. I guess that explained it. The Birkenstocks fellow mentioned he figured he'd have to vote for Obama, but that he'd prefer to have been able to vote for Ralph Nader. And I guess that explained that.

We drove back south and stopped in Port Orford in a park next to the highway. It was a good place to sit on a park bench and have lunch in the sunshine and calm breeze. We continued to enjoy unusually good coastal weather.

As we drove back towards Brookings we stopped at a few places, one of them was a natural bridge. There was a trail that led to a viewing platform and we got some photos there. From that point we noticed a less improved trail that led downhill. Looking at the top of the natural bridge, it appeared there was a trail going at least up to, if not over it. We decided to give it a try and found it was very steep. The last 200 yards or so were really steep with an almost vertical drop on either side for 200 or so feet to the surf. We made it to the bridge and came to the realization that the only really cool thing about being on a natural bridge is if someone else is at a distance and takes your picture because when you're on it, you can't tell you're on it – it just seems like you're standing on a narrow rock over the ocean. So it was back up the trail, on all fours at some points, and back to the truck.

We drove around Brookings, went to a “brewery” that turned out to really be just a pizza parlor, and checked out the “Azelea Park”, which was a pretty good municipal park for a town of 6,000, but not something I'd recommend.

After dinner we checked the weather and found it was forecast to be as nice on Wednesday as it had been Tuesday. We discussed the option of driving inland to camp one night in the Grants Pass area and do some sightseeing there. That would also take about two hours off of our dive home on Thursday as well. In the end, the lure of another day in great weather at the beach was too much so we stayed another night at Harris Beach and spent Wednesday sitting in the sun on the sand, reading and taking it easy.