ExplOregon coast vacation: Brookings and Harris Beach State Park.

hooray!

A few fails today but nothing significant. First, if you didn't know, The Vista Pub ("best burgers on the 101 coast!") in Brookings is closed on Mondays. But DoLittle Cafe is a really nice substitute. (They're closed on Tuesdays, FYI.)

And if you didn't know, the road to Vulcan Lake's hike and nearby small campsite was closed through 9/15 for repairs, so we had to nix Plan A.

Instead, we did a quick nature walk in the nearby Siskiyou National Forest nearby, where we learned about ferns and Patrick's reaction to bee stings. (And in writing this post I learned that we were in the "world's northernmost redwood grove" - neat!)

I {heart} trees

I still {heart} trees

sword, deer, lady, maidenhair -
can you tell the difference?

Then we headed north to the very crowded Harris Beach State Park. It was really the only option but despite the crowds of people, it turned out fine.

yeah...

...it'll do

They had a ranger lecture that evening on endangered lighthouses. Well. If you didn't know, Cape Blanco is the oldest lighthouse on the Oregon coast. Or maybe it's the Umpqua Lighthouse. Like each forested area in Oregon claims to have the biggest Doug Fir tree, there seems to be competition among the lighthouses as well. But it was an interesting talk and I had a whole new appreciation for lighthouses (and the inventor of the Fresnel lens - that guy was a GENIUS!) even before we visited four lighthouses over the next few days.

And finally, if you didn't know, skunks don't always spray when they are startled... That was probably the best lesson from this very informative day.