Our next stop going south on the coast was Cape Blanco State Park. This again was a beautiful state park with all the sites very private and we had a wonderful site sitting on the bluff overlooking the ocean. The only bad thing about the park was that it did sit about 250 feet above the ocean so to go to the beach you had a very steep climb down and then back up. On one end of the park was a single lane road that went to the beach but even that was a difficult climb going back to the park.
Cape Blanco Lighthouse sat on the far end of the park overlooking the sea on one side and a bay on the other. Because of the time of the year the tours had stopped so we could only see it from the outside. It was Oregon’s oldest lighthouse sitting on the farthest point west on the main land of the U.S. A trail on the bay side of the lighthouse took us down to the beach to see tidepools. It was a tough climb coming back up.
Our second day brought the temperature to the mid-40’s and rain. We had wanted to take a hike on the coastal trail that ran along the bluff behind the campground overlooking the ocean. Mid-afternoon it stopped raining so we bundled up, left the dogs and took off for a short walk to check out the trail. For some reason we got this crazy idea to go down the side of the bluff to walk on the beach. We had no trail to follow, tall thick grass to go through and it was very steep. We had to zigzag down trying to find areas that weren’t as steep, me right behind Joe. At one point Joe held out his arm to stop me and pointed to a porcupine about 5 ft away from us. We stopped to watch it for a little just to make sure it was going in a different direction than we were. At the bottom of the cliff were piles of driftwood that the ocean had stacked. That was even harder to cross than the climb down. I had to sit on my butt and maneuver over one log after another until I could put my feet on the sand. Joe, of course, just walked across the logs with no fear. After we were safe on the beach and looked back up to the top we realized we were a little foolish to do what we did but it was fun and a little exhilarating.
After a good walk on the beach we ended up walking the steep road back up to the park. It was a great day and a great stay at Cape Blanco State Park.