29th May – Cape Lookout to South Beach

We left Cape Lookout and continued south on the 101. Every couple of miles there was a turnout with amazing views. We saw cliffs, harbours and miles of beaches. 

 

We stopped at an amazing lookout with a gift shop that sat right out on the point of Cape Foulweather. It was built in the 30’s so you would want to check the foundations before moving in… Apparently the whale watching is awesome from the point.

We drove through a town called Lincoln City and over the world’s shortest river. It’s called D River and flows from Devils Lake to the sea, probably only 100 meters.

We saw the Devils Punchbowl and tasted some excellent reds from the Flying Dutchman Winery. They ferment the wines in open containers – the salt air adds a very different flavour and helps preserve the wines so they don’t add as much sulphite as normal. 

We stopped at Yaquima Heads to see the old lighthouse – it is still functional although went automatic in 1966. There was an extract from the keeper’s log that said something like “weather fine until the fog descended in the afternoon. Seas calm. Keeper died at 2pm”. The death of the keeper was a bit of an afterthought in the log. 

There were seals in the water, bobbing around obviously waiting for everyone to leave so they could get out on the beach. 

Drove on through Newport to South Beach State Park, went for a walk out to the jetty before dinner.