A cavalcade of pics (do people still say 'cavalcade'?)

 

I had heard from a colleague at work that it was the last weekend to see the spring whale migrations north from Baja to the Bering Straits. In the spring the grey whales swim closer to shore and can be seen from land.  We spontaneously decided to head to the coast for the weekend.  We had not yet been to Oregon's southern most beaches because last summer the forest between here and there was one of the worst wildfires (the Chetco fires) in the state, burning for weeks. The shortest (only?) route takes you into California (back to the State Park with the Redwoods) and then north along the Oregon coast to Brookings.  We had big deja vu arriving in the Redwoods about dark. This time we weren't lost.

We heard whales would be easier to spot in the morning light with the sun at our backs.  We went out about 8:00, armed with a friend's binoculars and a thermos cup of coffee. It was clear and sunny until we started heading north. We had to take a time out as I was getting hangry so we doubled back a bit to a recommended pancake house.  But in the same parking lot we saw a sign at Asana Grill for $6 breakfast specials:  two eggs, two bacon, two pancakes.  The pancakes were the size of your head.  We saved some for elevensies. The "clinic" next door sported a green cross rather than a red cross. THAT's why it was named "high" tide. (dumb me thought it was due to the proximity to the ocean.)

Not sighting any spouts or whale tails, we headed further north.  In Port Orford's visitor center the docents laughed about a story of new whale watchers who returned, in a torrential rain, stating they had sighted 37 whales. They were very happy out-of-towners and no one corrected them that the white splashes they had seen were surely white caps from the weather.  Everyone remained happy.  The dudes did give us a hot tip about Shore Acres State Park up by Coos Bay. We decided we could stay in Bandon over night so continued north for the promise of whales. We kept turning out at every scenic point and kept being impressed with the variety of the coast geology, miles of sandy beaches or elevations of crags and rocks the size of a house. Yellow everywhere and it turned out to be gorse bush but must be a different variety than we'd seen in Scotland. 

anenomes in the tide pools