Last saturday Ben and I decided we wanted to start exploring this area, seeing what we had close at hand. We spent the day Saturday visiting the Visitors center in Springfield, the Library (of course with two bibliophiles, that would be one of our first stops, right?) and the Saturday Market, which is much like the farmer's market in SLC, only more psychedelic. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and, in visiting the visitors center we found, not only a fellow Latter Day Saint, but also a large array of things to do in and around Springfield. We decided that we definately needed a visit to the coast, it being only an hour away, so bright and early Monday morning we were off on another adventure!
The drive proved to be very beautiful, passing through more trees than I think I've ever seen in my life. Some of the leaves were just starting to change color, and it was a spectacular sight. Trees curved over the road, creating a tunnel for us to pass through. It was a sunny fall day, very warm, and very much PERFECT for our adventure!
The city of Florence, Oregon is 65 miles from Springfield. We stopped there first, to enjoy the small "old town part" with it's little shops, and river shore restaurants. It is very much a quaint little town, and we found good eats, and beautiful scenes all around us. My favorite part was the bridge, I have pictures, just can't find the camera, but will post soon.
We had lunch at a restaurant called Mo's which has fabulous clam chowder! And then decided to get out of town to see the OCEAN! As we left town we stopped back at one of the first gift shops to get a wind chime I had spotted that I wanted to get, and we then we were on the road again.
11 miles north of Florence is the world's largest sea lion cave in the world. It houses a herd of over 400 Steller sea lions, and we were excited to see them. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they are not in their cave much during September, and will be back in the winter. Fortunately, we watched hundreds of sea lions play in the waves and scurry up the rocks to sun themselves. It was a great adventure, and we look forward to returning sometime in the winter to see them more up close in the cave.
Less than a mile north of the caves is the Heceta Head Lighthouse, with its neighboring beach. We decided to take a break from walking and play on the beach for a little while, enjoy the cold water soak our feet in before we hiked up to the light house. Mother Nature, being crafty and sly, decided to hit us with a huge wave, that soaked us both! Before heading up to the lighthouse we had to dry off and by the time we got there, they had closed for tours, but we were able to take pictures, and enjoy the view from the lighthouse.
From there we decided it was dinner time and almost watched the sun sink into the ocean, instead it sunk into a bank of clouds, and then into a dike, maybe next time we will have better luck! We did get to see some spectacular stars as we drove home, too!
All it all it was an amazing day! We thoroughly enjoyed or excursion, and hope to continue exploring as long as weather permits.
