Spring Break 2021: Part II - South Oregon Coast

 

On Wednesday we started our drive down the the southern part of the Oregon coast watching for pretty scenery along the way. Our first stop was Devil's Punchbowl in Otter Rock, OR. 

Next up was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We couldn't go inside but did enjoy touring the grounds.

We really liked watching the Murres on these rocks, seeing big flocks of them floating on the water, and listening to their little noises.

From there we went to Elephant Rock

This was another good spot for getting pictures of us with the scenery.

I could tell the kids were starting to get a little tired of seeing scenery without getting any real play time in, but we had a long way to travel still. 

They got a bit more of an adventure at Thor's Well. I came here with Amy a few years ago, but it was Oscar and the kids' first time.

These pictures make us look closer to the well than we actually were, but Allison didn't want to walk even this far out with us. She sat down on on some rocks about 15 feet away from where we stood to watch the well swell up and down. 

Tide was at a good level. It wasn't so high that I felt was dangerous for us or the kids, but it was enough to see it rise up and splash out. 

Allison was really tired at this point and didn't want to walk on rocks anymore, so daddy carried her on his shoulders back to the paved trail.

We did a little more exploring and briefly ended up on the wrong trail before figuring it out and heading back to the car.

Here's the Heceta Head lighthouse lookout on our way to the sea lion caves.

The sea Lion caves had over an hour long line thanks to capacity precautions, which in my opinion was unnecessary for an outdoor attraction that already required everyone to wear masks. We played "Would You Rather" while we were in line, which Allison started picking up on and making up her own scenarios. Our favorite was when she asked Tyler "Would you rather live in a solar system with no planets or never see your home again?"

Before we went into the cave we walked out to the outdoor sea lion lookout. We watched a couple of bulls fighting for dominance. 

And here we are down in the caves. In the brochure they show you sea lions all over those rocks, but when we were there they were just on this big one. There were lots more at the first lookout. Still it was fun to go in and see it once. We'd skipped over it the last time we were in the area.  

Within the cave there's also a pretty coastline view of the Heceta head lighthouse.

I took this picture on the right standing about halfway between the first lookout and the elevator leading down to the caves. There was more than enough space for people to social distance. There really was no need to make us all wait so long. If anything we were more exposed to each other by standing in that line for so long. They have far more space within the attraction than within their parking lot. 

From there we went to our hotel in Bandon Oregon and got a good night's sleep before our big day the next day. We then drove as far south as we would go on this trip to the Prehistoric Gardens in Port Orford. We intentionally didn't tell Allison we'd be going to this place until the day we went there or she would have been disappointed by everything we did do up until that point.

The dinosaur sculptures are mixed in with a lot of foliage, which makes it feel more like the environment you would have actually found them living in back then.

The brachiosaurus is BIG! You don't realize just how big until you see a life-size one in front of you.

Tyler liked seeing the triceratops (even with a man working underneath it).

Allison is very familiar with the Archaeopteryx turtle thanks to the show Dinosaur Train.

Here are the Psittacosaurus and the Ankylosaurus

The Elasmosaurus was big and scary. I couldn't get it all in one picture. Even with panorama I would have needed to be farther away.

The ichthyosuar had fallen over and the stegosaurus was more impressive than I would have expected. I can't remember the name of the dinosaur on the top left, but I remember the information saying it was often prey to a T-Rex because it had nothing to defend itself with. 

And a few more before heading back in the car and starting our drive back north.

Our next stop was the West Coast Game Park Safari. We hadn't heard about this until seeing it on a brochure at our hotel in Lincoln City. This is a zoo where you can also feed and pet some of the animals. The safest animals (like the deer, sheep, goats, and llamas) are allowed to roam freely throughout the property. 

After paying for admission we purchased ice cream cones with feed in them for the free roaming animals. The kids loved being surrounded by so many animals at once. The only animal that was allowed to eat the cone itself was the bear, so they instructed us to toss it over the fence to her after we'd given away all the feed. 

In addition to the free roaming animals we also got to pet a lynx, a skunk, and a serval. At one point they were offering fox petting too, but we missed it somehow.

There were also caged animals like any other zoo. I was surprised the tigers were in the same enclosure together since they're naturally solitary creatures.

Here are the Elk and Tyler standing under the antlers they'd shed. Tyler also found a sweet baby goat to pet. 

Here are some of the other caged animals.

This huge male peacock kept turning his butt to me while I was trying to get a picture of his gorgeous feathers. As I'd walk around he'd spin around too, but eventually I got to see him from the front.

We got to see Mr Ostrich up close.

The kids were pretty fascinated by seeing a wild turkey. The Emus were another animal that was allowed to roam freely.

3 year old Tyler would have been over the moon about seeing these camels.

After our zoo fun we drove up to Face rock lookout. I think Octopus Rock would be a better name for it.

And from there we made our nearly 4 hour drive to our final hotel of the trip in Salem, OR.