Cape Arago

Yesterday we basically vegged out.  I spent some time getting my photos organized and labeled and Gene washed the bugs off the truck and Everest.  We certainly didn’t do anything worth writing home about.

Looking for sea creatures

Today we drove about 50 miles north to the small town of Coos Bay and concentrated our efforts on the coastline of Cape Arago.  We found the sea lions sunning themselves at Simpson Reef.  The big guy on the rock alone was making such a noise that we continued to hear him bellow the whole time we were exploring the tide pools about a half mile farther down the beach.

Tide pools

Starfish

The tide pools were fascinating.  We had never seen them before and we were like little children searching for something exciting in each pool.  We saw several starfish, but I think our favorite find was the sea urchins.  There were several anemone, as well.  The water in most pools was so clear it was almost like there was no water at all.  In other pools it was a little cloudy.

Purple sea urchin

Purple starfish

Sea anemone

At the top of the cliff from the tide pools was a small picnic area which was perfect for our lunch.  The weather was great, really.  The sun was shining in the big blue sky and the temperature was somewhere around 60.  Anywhere that was sheltered from the wind was very pleasant, but in the wind was a bit cold.  Luckily, the tide pools were sheltered, making this a very nice first experience.

View from our lunch spot

We can always find a trail, of course, and today we walked a couple miles along the Oregon Coast Trail.  This trail, like the name implies, is a linear trail which runs the entire length of the Oregon Coast--some 350  miles.   We got some great views of the Cape Arago Lighthouse as well as the sea stacks just south of the lighthouse.  It was amazing to see how high the spray reached when the wave came crashing into the rock.

Sea lions at Simpson Reef

Tomorrow, we will drive south along the coast to check out the views from some of the pullouts along US 101.  We were unable to do that when we were towing the Everest the other day.