Magical Oregon

Candy: We LOVE Oregon.

We drove up Highway 101 along the coast from Eureka to Tillamook, Oregon, which is straight west of Portland on the coast.

It's amazingly beautiful. We saw huge redwood trees in northern California intermingled with wide glimpses of the sea crashing onto rocky outcroppings just off the shoreline.

The surf was so big, especially compared to what we've been accustomed to seeing, and it was a sunny, pleasant day. I can't imagine how big it is when there's a storm.

I goofed on our accommodations, thinking today was the 5th, and reserved a room for us at the Ecola Creek Lodge in Cannon Beach for the 5th through the 9th. However, it's the 4th, so we ending up stopping about 45 miles south of our destination at a Shilo Inn in Tillamook.
It's a super nice suite and there's an indoor pool open 24 hours. We feel so luxurious after our week in a tent, followed by almost a week on the road, followed by our recent week in a KOA Kamping Kabin. The smallest luxuries seem gigantic after extended days of living simply.

We saw a small herd of elk today just lounging and grazing in a meadow off 101. We stopped to let Chase run a bit while I took some photos. Here's one that shows the elk looking back at us. Apparently they'd never seen people from the Midwest as you can tell from their perplexed looks.
We also stopped to eat in Lincoln City, Oregon, then continued north, stopping at a scenic overlook to photograph the sunset. It was beautiful and I'm looking forward to several more opportunities to capture the western sunsets.

I'll leave you with another shot of the sunset tonight.