November 14, 2015 Cape Perpetua Scenic Area, Oregon

Cloudy, in the high 50’s. Heavy rain and high winds predicted.

Lake Cleawox  in Honeyman State Park is one of the many fresh water lakes in the dunes. Wouldn’t it be fun when it is hot to roll down those dunes into the lake? Or paddle one of these when it is sunny and not windy? We will have to come back when the weather is better.   We headed to Cape Perpetua Scenic Area. I think this is the best place on the coast to watch big waves. We stopped first at Spouting Horn, an ocean geyser. It was high tide and the waves were HUGE.

 

John with the Spouting horn. The coolest part of this is not the spout, but the foamy waves that race up the chasm. They look cream.

Thor’s Well is a gigantic hole on the top of the cliff that fills with water from below and drains with the waves. Another chasm with people next to it to show you the size of the waves. All of these waves are HUGE.

 

More cool foam. We watched waves and foam it for hours. The power and immensity  is breath taking.

This big wave would have landed on those people, but they had moved . John got pretty wet from a couple.The waves were so huge and the wind so high that the foam blew at John like snow.

The Spout and the foam still blowing by. We hiked the trail up the coast past the visitors center toward Devil’s churn.

 

Looking back and down at the ocean. Devil’s churn is another long chasm where the waves bounce around making creamy foam and finally explode at the end.

 

In the bottom right you can see John trying to outrun a big wave, he didn’t make it and got wet again. Creamy foam in Devil’s Churn.

 

John hiking back. The foam was blowing and laying around like snow. Yellow snow John says.

 

We drove up to the Cape Perpetua look out. It is the highest place on the Oregon coast that you can drive too, 800 feet straight up from sea level. This is a view looking back to where we were on the cliffs.We hiked the Whispering Spruce trail around the top. The wind was blowing about 50 miles per hour and it was more like the Screaming Spruce trail. The CCC built this West Lookout at the view point over looking the ocean.

 

Aster, amanita mushroom, salal blossoms, gull, seed heads on a bush, dandelion,  white flowers and a purple aster.