Oregon Coast « Min's Blog

Oregon Coast and Crater Lake

26 06 2009

This is not the first time I’m here at the Oregon Coast. We started on intersection of US26 and US101, Ecola state park. Nice pacific coast view from here, overlooking Cannon Beach. It’s $3 per entry. Cannon Beach is not that full of people yet, though with the cold sea water, there’s kids playing around.
Next stop, Tillamook Cheese Factory. Yummy yummy, I bought 2 flavour of ice creams and go for the free cheese tasting. Yum Yum, all the cheeses is nice, except the one with chili, I don’t quite like it.
Next stop, depoe bay. We stopped by the whale watching center by crossing through the Depoe bay bridge. If you are on the steps of the bridge and looking into the bay where there’s a lot of boats, do look to the bottom of you, there’s people working there, cutting the fish and we do found 2 seals there:)We’re not on a good time for whale watching, so didn’t stop by too long.
Other places we do visit is the Newport, Devils punch bowl state park, Foul weather outlook, Cape perpetua and Yaquina light house.
When we reach sea lion caves, it’s already closed so just take pictures of the amazing pacific coast line.
We stopped at the Otter Rock’s Mo’s and had our lunch there. We’re here last time in Y2007 too I just love their clam chowder.
We stayed a night at Super8 in Springfield, OR. Receptionist is very friendly. Room as usual, is spacious and nice. Breakfast is inside room, simple and just nice. There’s a Chinese buffet near here, it’s pretty good with reasonable cost.
Next day departed for Crater Lake. It’s about 2hours drive using US58 and US138. The road before reach the north entrance is really straight and at the end you’ll see an uphill road. Haha, really amazing roadwork and plan. When we reached the north entrance, it’s park free weekend, so we’re free to go in. The ranger warned us “Poor weather ahead, so drive carefully”. And East rim drive is still closed. Hmm, doesn’t sound encouraging, I thought it’s going to be heavy rain as I checked in weather forecast some days ago, it’s thunderstorm. As we drive through the west rim and going further south, we noticed the temperature is near to 1 to 2 degree Celcius and “Oh, it’s snow!”. It’s raining, and with the cold weather and great height, it becomes snow and it just started! Wow, it’s my first time seeing snow and so were my parents. My mom is especially excited! Previously they went to Lake Tahoe, it’s already after snow and just able to experience walking on thick old snows. When we drive further it became thicker and now, it’s no fun to me, as I scared the road is slippery and we don’t have car chains with us though the ranger didn’t mention anything about chained up. And we can’t really see the lake So we stopped at the rim village. It’s just a short drive there from the north entrance. We have a sip of hot coffee and nice lunch and outside we went again. This time at the rim village, we saw the lake is clear now. The lake is amazingly blue! We then went back the west rim drive and drove back up north and revisit all the view points. Now, a view of the lake, amazing. Still a bit different than what I saw inside my colleague’s photo where the lake gets really nice mirror of the mountains. But anyway, this is unforgettable experience already for me and my parents