Yachats rocks

In the Cape Perpetua visitor center I learned that the volcanic rock on the Oregon coast is full of agates. As streams and waves wear down the rock the agates break free and wash up on the beach. You can find them among the rocks as the tide goes out. So while Nick perused the tidepools I scoured the gravel for anything vaguely translucent. 

By the end of our time in Yachats I had a pretty good handful of potential agates. Nick got me a rock tumbler for an early birthday present so I could polish them up. It seems that people generally polish rocks in four stages: gross shaping, minor shaping, pre-polish, and polish. I decided to skip the gross shaping step to keep my rocks in more irregular beachy shapes. The trade-off is that some of them would retain pits and depressions that won't polish up that well. I took photos before and after, because science. I think they came out pretty well. Each square in the pictures below is 1" x 1". Number 63 is my favorite.

Tiny rocks pre-polishing.

Tiny rocks after polishing.

Biggish rocks pre-polishing.

Biggish rocks after polishing.

Yachats trip

I spent some of my layoff-cation exploring the coast town of Yachats with Nick. We stayed at Ocean Cove Inn and ate dinner twice at Heidi's Italian Restaurant, both of which were awesome. It rained every day we were there, which kept the crowds down and made for good waves. 

Our main objective in selecting Yachats was to check out Thor's Well, a hole in rock ledge on the ocean's edge that fills and drains with every wave then the tide is right. We visited first thing Friday morning. You'll have to check the link for pictures. We were too chicken to take our phones out near it. I did get a shot of the Spouting Horn blowing up a puff.

Cape Perpetua Spouting Horn spouting.

We stomped all over the coast then drove up to the Cape Perpetua overlook to dry off a bit. It was only 800 feet up but that was enough to transition the rain to snow. It was too overcast to see very far but the view gives you a good feel for the coastline.

Nick in the snow.

Cape Perpetua Overlook

After lunch we hiked the Giant Spruce trail to what is reputed to be the second largest tree in Oregon. It is a big one. It started life on a fallen log called a nurse log. When the nurse log rotted away it left a nice dry cave. 

Hanging out in the nurse log cave.

That's a big tree.

Cool yellow plant.

On Saturday we drove down the coast a bit to check out the sea lion cave. It is a huge sea cave where sea lions hang out; you can take an elevator down and ogle them. The scene is kind of like the elephant seal beach in Big Sur, but in a cave. They have a mesh fence up to keep the visitors separate from the seals. There is not much chance of disturbing them from a distance because it is crazy loud in there with the barking and the waves. While we were down there the elevator broke down so about 30 of us were trapped for 40 minutes while they tried to get a repair person out. Eventually they decided it would be too long to wait for a fix and we all got to go up the stairs. It was the twistiest spiral staircase I've ever encountered. You had to kind of sidle up with your back against the center pole. I kept picturing us all going down like a line of dominoes if someone at the top stumbled. 

Sea lion cave.

Sea lion cave movie.

After escaping from the sea lions we went for a short hike on the dunes. I would have liked to get down to the ocean but the path was flooded and swampy from all the rain. Still, we got to scamper in the sand which was fun. 

Nell on the dunes.

Sunday we headed home in scattered rain. We stopped a few times to look for agates and to check out Otter Rock. We glimpsed a few critters in the waves, but I think they were sea lions not otters.

View south from Otter Rock.

Otter Rock in repose.

Catherine Creek hike

Brian and I hiked around near Catherine Creek yesterday. It is known for wildflowers March - May and we saw quite a few. I tried to take photos but the camera on my phone is definitely tuned for people and scenery shots, most of the flower shots did not turn out. Below are few of the better ones. I found the names on wildflowersearch.com, although any errors in ID are certainly mine alone.

I really like these upside down orange guys but I couldn't find them on the flower naming site.

Columbia Gorge desert parsley. We thought these guys looked a bit like the fennel that grew in Santa Barbara.

Poet's shooting star flowers.

Naked broomrape flowers.

Bigseed biscuitroot amongst the rocks. Sister to the desert parsley and also very fennel-like.

The hike itself was beautiful. We paralleled Catherine Creek for about 1/2 mile and got to hear it burble.The land had been used for sheep and cattle in the past and had some old wooden fences still and rolls of barbed wire about. The trail traveled through open meadow with large grassy areas and areas with rocks sticking out. It was a ~5 mile loop with 1500 feet of elevation gain. We could see down into the Columbia the whole way. About halfway up we got high enough to see Mt. Hood but it was covered in clouds. We got a better view from the Hood River bridge on our way home. 

View east up the Columbia.

Brian doing his thing.

Old livestock pen by Catherine Creek.

Cider bottled

Nick and I bottled up the cider this morning. We tasted it last week and thought it was coming along pretty well. It's dry and a tiny bit fizzy and tastes like apple. We added some brown sugar syrup to give the yeast something to work with then sealed it up and put it back in the closet. We'll check on the fizziness level in a few days.

Cider in bottles.