It seems that Oregon campsites are great about showers, I have had showers accessible and free at every campsite I have stayed at so far, including tonight. It feels weird to shower daily again. As we drove off, we soon came upon signs for sea lions caves, I pulled over and went to check it out. Realizing that you had to buy $14 tickets to see the caves, I opted to just watch for sea lions from the side of the road and was treated to frequent sightings of sea lions swimming in the water right below, along with huge groups of them just hanging out in the water a good distance away. To my delight, I also spotted whales! I think they are Grey Whales on a migratory path and I believe I saw 3 of them, a fantastic sight! I could have watched all day, but after a good long while, I finally pulled myself away to return to Luna, who was unimpressed with not getting to join me as she usually does. We continued along the road, stopping frequently. Our next stop was along a rocky beach 5 or 10 minutes away. We did come across a dead sea lion there which was sad, the small stream of blood from it’s mouth made it worse. Along the beach there were several people combing through the rocks, eventually I worked up the courage to ask one woman what she was looking for “egats”, she responded, asking if I knew what there were (nope!) and then showing me some beautiful clear stones, one of them sparkled, they were quite pretty and the way she talked passionately about them was lovely, I was thankful she reacted positively to my asking rather than protectively, not wanting to share her treasures with others. I spoke to another group of three people who wanted to meet Luna and one turned out to have lived in Alberta for a couple years so we talked for awhile. There was a cave at this beach and when I went in to it, Luna stopped and stared at me with deep concern and a look that suggested she thought I was insane for going in there, but when she realized I was going to continue in to the depths of it, she joined me, how did I get so lucky as to have a dog that will follow me anywhere?!
Continuing on, I stopped not far from there when I spotted some seals on the rocks below. I climbed down on to rocks a little ways from them, I could have gone closer, but I wanted to maintain a respectful distance for them. I counted up to 32 at one point, but some were so well camouflaged that I’m sure I missed counting some of them. They kept an eye on Luna and I as they rested and I watched more seals arrive, pulling themselves up on to the rocks with incredible skill for such creatures. I spent a long while there, then headed back to the parking lot and ended up cooking some pasta for a late lunch at one of the picnic tables, having only eaten a protein bar that morning as I had run out of fruit. Heading out, I stopped at another spot with a nice view and a geyser that wasn’t shooting water up at the moment as it was low tide. I stopped at one more place, Yachat’s State Park, which, despite being labelled a State Park, had no fee (also seems to be a common occurrence here). I ended up not getting out there, I had been feeling a little nauseous all day and how much my eye had been to the camera that morning and not helped (if I look through the lens enough it makes me feel quite unwell, particularly if I’ve zoomed up a lot and am moving the camera as I had been to follow the whales and sea lions earlier), so I spent some time just sitting and watching the waves and the birds overhead, I did see a Bald Eagle that was just beautiful, I took photos of it as well which made me feel funny again from tracking him through the lens.
I headed out, set for Tillamook but ended up stopping soon after when I saw a sign that said “Beachside State Park” and had the tent sign for camping, I could see some of the beach through the trees and it looked beautiful, so I decided to camp there for the night. We went for a long walk along the beach, before returning to the car so I could give Luna her supper, then settled down to journal until sunset. We headed back to the beach for sunset and it was absolutely wonderful. I took some more photos before sitting down in the sand to admire it, scroll to the bottom of this post to see some of my favourite photos of Luna and I! Looking at Luna standing beside me, I felt so fortunate to be there with her. Eventually Luna became impatient with my meditative state and began to dig right by my feet, her head pushed in to my leg, her signal that she really wanted to keep moving, so, after taking a few moments to breathe deeply (I have been practicing this, it feels so good!), I got up and we headed back. We stopped to chat with a man who wanted to visit with Luna, his wife soon joined us and we talked for awhile, they had 3 dogs, 4 cats, alpacas, goats, a horse and 26 chickens, upon hearing that, I felt like I could chat with them for a long time, but soon enough they had to go check on their daughter, so we parted ways and I returned to my car for the evening.
Two sea lions sharing a tender moment far below me.
Huge groups like these of sea lions hanging out a long ways away.
Two whales!
Checking out something or other that had gotten her attention, she hated how all the sea life in the tide pool area that didn't look like it should be able to move did!
Looking out from the cave.
The entrance to the cave, it went in a lot farther than it looks.
The seals.
Bald Eagle.
Flying....
....still flying...
....still flying ;)
STILL flying, haha.
My ocean dog!
Just doing some snorkelling.
Absolutely love this photo of us! No, I was not holding any treats for Luna to look at me like that, she just gets really excited when I set the camera up and walk away!
I was walking, but for some reason this photo just turned out looking like I was standing and welcoming the sun with open arms.
Final rays.
