Hobbit Trail

We started out Friday morning with the intention of stopping at  a lot of places up the coast on our way to wherever we would be spending that night. We had a couple of options, and decided to play that part of the day by ear.

There were a number of lighthouses along the way that we especially wanted to see, the first being the Cape Arago Lighthouse, about 12 miles southwest of North Bend and Coos Bay. We were looking for a sign, but didn’t see one specifically for the lighthouse, and missed the turn we needed. Oh well, we weren’t going back through Coos Bay to find it. That town had way too many logging trucks for me!

The Umpqua River Lighthouse was the next one on our journey, three miles south of Reedsport, but when we got there, Larry thought that the road down would be too steep for Jumbo, so I drove down to check it out. He was right – Jumbo would not have appreciated it at all. The structure has a 65-foot tower that overlooks sand dunes from a 165-foot elevation on the south side of the bay. Its light was illuminated in 1894. 

The Umpqua River Bridge...

We passed over the Siuslaw Bridge into Florence... so many bridges!

We parked Jumbo on the street in front of the Visitor Center.

 I went inside and got some more info, and then we drove around the old part of town, stopping at the harbor. 

We walked around a bit and realized that it was about time to look for someplace to eat lunch. We found a cozy little natural foods restaurant and had some fish tacos. I forgot to take a picture!

We decided that we would spend the night at the Carl G. Washburne State Park, about 20 miles north of Florence. It was beautiful, nestled in a very mossy forest. We found a campsite right next to the creek that runs through the park.

Duchess and I took a stroll through the area while Larry went down to pay and register us.

I especially liked the ferns that grew next to the creek.

Everything was covered with moss!

 

We decided that it would do us good to take the half-mile trail down to the beach. It was like something from a fairy tale, with all of the mossy trees and large ferns – the perfect place for fairies and pixies to call home, complete with mushrooms for shelter, and a bridge under which the troll could reside! I discovered later, after reading the brochure for the park, that this trail is called the Hobbit Trail – perfect!

The trail went under the highway...

We wandered the beach and  became quite wind-blown!

Duchess & Larry playing her favorite game of "Catch the Leash."

The trail back to the campground...

A mushroom grove...

After Larry hooked up the electricity and we rested our weary bones for a while, we drove to the Heceta Head Lighthouse Scenic Viewpoint. The lighthouse was built in the early 1890s, and its light began shining March 30, 1894. Duchess and I were both exhausted from the earlier walk to the beach, and waited in the car while Larry took some pictures.

We drove on to Bob Creek and walked down over the rocks to the beach. With my poor old knee, it seemed to take me forever to navigate those rocks. I almost gave up, but kept on going. It was truly worth it, and the way back up wasn’t nearly as difficult.

When we got back to the campground, we were all incredibly tired. Larry and I changed into some comfy clothes and collapsed on the sofa. We decided to watch Saving Mr. Banks, heated up some leftover stir fry, and settled in for the night. We had both the electric heater and the propane heater going, because we both felt chilled. At some point we noticed that Duchess wasn’t on the sofa with us, and discovered her lying on the floor in the cab area of the coach. We were worried about her, since she’s usually wherever we are sitting. I realized that it was warmer inside than we realized, and she was just trying to cool off! We went back to watching the movie, and within a few minutes she got up and went to bed. We had totally worn the poor little thing out! We promised her that the next day wouldn’t be nearly as grueling!

We crawled into bed beside our exhausted little dog and truly enjoyed the absolute stillness of this place. Compared to the nights a couple of weeks ago in the Flying J parking lots, surrounded by the noisy big rigs, this was absolute heaven!