We were not disappointed! Even the heavy overcast skies and low temperatures could not dim our enthusiasm. In fact, those weather conditions actually added an extra quality to our shots which we really appreciated.

We stopped practically every few miles to see what we could shoot. I think we visited every scenic lookout or car parking along the stretch of Hwy 101 between Newport and Tillamook.

An interesting spot we found quite by accident (those are always the best discoveries!) is the Devil’s Punchbowl.

Looking down upon the Devil’s Punchbowl

If you look carefully, you can see two openings down there, allowing the sea water to rush in during storms. In severe weather, water from the ocean slams with a thundering roar into the bowl churning and foaming. You can see how the water was carved out a huge bowl-shaped hole.

Every time we stopped somewhere, we could not help but observe plants and flowers we had never seen before. Here are a few examples of these, quite beautiful, flowering plants, seen everywhere.

In addition to these beautiful flowers, we could not believe the amount of Flowering Broom. It was everywhere, in beautiful vibrant yellow.

Burning Driftwood

When we checked into the RV Park, the map of the park they gave us had a little note not to use driftwood in campfires anywhere in the RV Park. We found this a bit strange as we saw mountains of driftwood on virtually every beach we passed. Checking into this a bit further we found out why. Burning driftwood gives off toxic fumes!

Driftwood is saturated with salt from the ocean and when it burns, it gives off a pretty blue/purple colored flame, but the smoke contains a chemical called Dioxin which is carcinogenic. Dioxin is referred to as a persistent, bioaccumulating toxin, meaning it doesn’t decompose, and it builds up in the tissues of the organisms that ingest it. Specifically it can concentrate in mother’s milk. It has been associated with various cancers.

This was a major surprise to us as we had no idea. We do now and will stay well away from bon-fires on the beach that are fueled by driftwood.

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As someone who grew up in the Netherlands, a country that produces A LOT of high quality and tasty cheese, I am accused of being somewhat of a snob when it comes to this dairy delight. I’ve had Tillamook before and DO consider it better than many of the somewhat flavorless cheeses found in US supermarkets. Linda and I therefore were very keen to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory which, we had read, had a self-guided tour, a factory viewing platform and, best of all, . . . . free tasting of samples!

As the day was wet, windy cold we did not stop for any scenery shots, deciding to do those on the way back, later in the day when, hopefully, it would be a lot warmer.

Upon arrival in the town of Tillamook, one cannot help but see how “small” this place is, despite its famous name. We suspect that a large portion of the local population works at the factory and that many, if not all, of the surrounding dairy farms produce the milk required by the production process.

We first went to the observation deck, an area above the factory floor where you can walk around and observe the cheese making activity below – all from behind glass of course, for hygienic and safety reasons.

It was interesting to see the various stages of the process.The big vats where the milk is first processed and the curds are extracted and made into giant blocks of cheese, which are put away for aging. When properly aged, these blocks are cut into the smaller sizes you get in the store.

We were amazed at how many human hand were still needed in this process. Simple things like laying the cut blocks of cheese down onto the conveyer, removing the leftovers of the cutting and multiple actions such as turning, flipping and rearranging were all done by people.

After the viewing we headed for the tasting! Oh yeah! There were some 6 different flavors: the cheese curds, cheddar, the sharp cheddar, swiss, a smoked cheddar and a pepper-infused cheddar.

I had never had the curds before and was pleasantly surprised at the soft and subtle flavor. I am guessing the curds are “fresh” and have not yet gone through the aging process, which would increase the flavor.

My favorites turned out to be the Swiss and the Smoked Cheddar with the pepper-infused one coming in at a close second.

The checkout

Needless to say, after the sampling comes the buying! Visitors cannot avoid going through the gift store and well-stocked cold-boxes filled with cheese.

No surprise that we purchased the Smoked Cheddar, the Swiss and the pepper-infused.

We also purchased a cheese cutting board for in the motorhome. On the way out, we gave the ice creamery and fudge bar a wide miss, having convinced ourselves we did not need the calories.

Believe me, that was hard.

On the way back to Waldport, we made those stops to shoot the scenic coastline.

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No surprise then that this area is beautiful and a popular destination for salmon fishing. In fact, a fellow camper proudly informed us that he had caught a 22 pound Chinnook salmon, just a few hundred feet from the campsite.

So, with cameras in tow, we set off to see what we could find, traveling along the south bank of the river. We drove onto this “beach” to get close to the river and get a feel of the surrounding scenery, which you can see here is beautiful. We later passed over that bridge you can see.

A nearby plaque explained how hundreds of thousands of salmon pass under that bridge every year, all of them doing it twice in their lifetime, once as juveniles, heading out to sea and once as adults, heading upstream to spawn. Needless to say, all this fish has attracted all sorts of fishing activities over the year and the Port of Gold Beach, the town where the river flows into the Pacific ocean has a rich history of commercial fishing. There is a partially sunken boat in the harbor (called the Mary D. Hume) left there as a monument to the glory days of commercial fishing in the area.

However, I digress, as the point that I want to make is that man is not the only species attracted to the fish in this river. We learned that Osprey nest in the area as they are fish-eating birds. We also leanred that the occasional Bald Eagle can be spotted in the area. When we drove onto that bridge mentioned earlier, we spotted about a dozen Ospreys soaring over the water and saw a bunch more perched on a rocky outcrop. Excited, we mounted our long lenses on the cameras and went for a walk hoping to catch a few shots of these birds of prey.

Rogue River Bald Eagle

To our amazement and delight, we spotted a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree with a freshly caught fish. This was our first ever sighting of a Bald Eagle in wild! While Linda believes she briefly saw one just a few days before, she was not sure so we were both extremely thrilled with this sighting.

These Rogue River Bald Eagles are so majestic and powerful looking. The Bald Eagle is unique to North America and not only has become our National Bird, the Bald Eagle is also featured on the “Great Seal of the United States”. By the way, the birds are not actually bald. It turns out the term “bald” used to mean “white headed” at some time in the past and the name stuck, even though the term “bald” has taken on a different meaning.

What a treat to see such a majestic bird in the wild! We are told that half of all of the Bald Eagles are found in Alaska, so we are fully expecting to get more pictures of this magnificent bird in the near future, but so thrilled to have spotted this one so early on in our trip!

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We almost did not go because of all the fires in California, Oregon and Washington. The sky is filled with smoke, you can smell it and the particles in the air make everything look like it is smothered in fog. Photographing vistas and the local scenery is almost impossible due to the haze.

However, we went anyway as some rain was predicted and besides, who does not like going out on an adventure!

This shot is taken on the Eastern side of Crater Lake, the beautiful lake formed by a huge volcanic eruption that took place some 7500 years ago. The event must have been massive, if you stand along side the lake today and imagine in your mind’s eye where the original volcano must have been, it is mind-boggling, it must have been so massive.

So back to the Eastern shores of the lake. You cannot “just go down”, the edges are quite steep, a real “bowl” with a steep rim all around the lake. The lake is famous for its blue color and clarity. This is because there are no rivers that flow into the lake so there is no sediment that can cloudy up the water. The water comes from rain and snow melt. It is the deepest fresh water lake in the US.

About this shot. I feel I “broke” some basic composition rules (or guidelines if you wish) by centering the tree right in the middle of the shot. However, I feel it “works” for this shot and the sky was just magnificent, presumably because of the smoke.

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