After a very relaxing stay at Coos Bay it was time to continue along the coast of Oregon. Today would be the shortest leg of our trip, a 75 mile drive north to the town of Yachats where we would stay at the Sea Perch RV Resort. Since check-in was not until 1pm and this ride shouldn't take more than two hours it meant we would have the rare luxury to sleep in late and take our time leaving in the morning.
We did not have to unhitch so it was a pretty simple departure. Adam broke down camp and we headed out at 11am. Yachats would be another one night stay but unlike Coos Bay, we did plan to unhitch and explore at this destination. Unfortunately during the drive there was an unexpected delay but we still made great time and arrived at 1:05pm only 5 minutes after checkin started.
As we were checking in there was a class A motorcoach next to us with two dogs sitting on the dash watching as their owners got things situated. The girls got a good laugh from this.
This Sea Perch RV Resort was also right on the ocean. It was much smaller than the one in Coos Bay and we could see the ocean right from our site.
When we finished setting up camp we walked down to the beach. We kept this quick since we had plans for the afternoon plus it was windy and cold.
This campsite had a clubhouse and we thankfully decided to go and check it out. We were absolutely blown away by how beautiful it was inside. There were several sitting rooms, a laundry room, restrooms, and a game room with a pool table. We decided to go back to the RV to get our lunch and bring it back to the clubhouse to eat. In the upstairs room there was a huge window with a perfect view of the ocean and a large table to sit and eat.
After our quick lunch we got into the truck to go explore. The first stop was Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint. In the parking lot there was a sign with general warnings. Adam explained to Ella what exactly a sneaker wave is and that didn't go so well. It freaked her out and then took some convincing that we would keep her safe and she could go beyond the parking lot.
We climbed down the stairs to get onto the beach. Right at the bottom of the steps was a huge collection of driftwood. While most of the ocean was to the left, unlike the beaches we were used to, the ocean receded in sections and one section formed a little stream. The water was crystal clear and we stayed by this section to see the beautiful rocks in the bed below.
Next we made our way to checkout a few very unique areas on the Cape Perpetua coastline. First was Spouting Horn At Cook's Chasm, an ocean geyser. There is a cave in the rocks at the edge of the ocean. As waves come in it pushes air and water into the cave building up pressure until the water explodes like a geyser. The sight and sound both resemble a whale exhaling. We watched from above at first. Then we walked down the trail made up mostly of a large flight of steps to get a closer look. There were several people walking out onto the rocks to get very close but we decided to stay back just in case. In this area we weren't so sure we could keep Ella (or ourselves) safe from those sneaker waves.
Video of Spouting Horn at Cook's Chasm
As we started walking back to the car we decided to continue down the beautiful trail with the ocean to our left and gorgeous plants and trees lining the trail instead. The signs said we could walk to the visitor center following this trail and we did want to get there. At one point we got to a sign that said tide pools to the left and visitor center to the right. We all agreed we wanted to go to the left and see the tide pools up close. We climbed the black rocks and got a very good look inside the water. We were trying to see the marine life living here. We saw a ton of tadpoles. Ella learned a lot about tadpoles in school when her school partnered with the Philadelphia Zoo so this was pretty cool to see them in their natural habitat. As hard as we looked we didn’t see anything other than the tadpoles but they kept our interest for a very long time.
Here is a link to a 360 photo we took at the tide pool and posted to Google Street View
After staying here for a very long time we started to continue to the visitor center. We went a couple feet and Adam started to have second thoughts about walking there. It looked like we might have to cross the highway so we walked back to the truck instead. We drove over to the visitor center and were all very thankful we didn’t continue the rest of the hike because it was closed. We drove to Devil’s Churn next which is a long crack in the coastal rock that fills with each ocean wave. There was a hike here too but since we spent so much time at the tide pools we decided to just watch Devil’s Churn from the overlook above it.
We took a short drive to the town of Yachats and chose to eat at the Luna Sea Fish House because the info our campground gave us listed this as the best seafood. The girls shared a bowl of chowder and loved it. Adam and I decided to share the seafood sampler but we didn’t love it so much. It was very bland, three tiny bites of three fishes and very overpriced.
After dinner we walked around the town and ended up going in the market to get a few things. Adam tried to find the closest gas station on his phone and couldn’t believe that it was 9 miles away, further from our campground. He went back into the market and they confirmed that was the closest one. So we made the drive over and then turned around to return to our campground. By the time we returned it was already around 9pm. I needed to do laundry which was in the club house. The girls were very happy to spend more time there so we all took a walk over (Adam and I with wine in hand). They played foosball and pool with Adam until another family also showed up to do laundry. The kids became fast friends and we enjoyed some adult conversation with other parents traveling the country with their young kids. We ended up staying in the club house until midnight with our new friends before returning to the camper with clean laundry and tired eyes.
