Lighthouses and Beach Towns and Dunes, Oh My!

Leaving Gold Beach behind, we headed up the coast with hopes of a little more excitement than abandoned airports and microwaveable pork rinds.  Our first stop did not disappoint - the Cape Blanco lighthouse.  Although it's still a working lighthouse, you can actually get up close and take a tour.  It's the oldest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, and sits on the second-most westerly point of land in the lower 48 US states (though some locals claim it's the farthest west, that distinction actually goes to some point on the Olympic peninsula in Washington).  Some friendly volunteers from as far afield as Alabama told us about the lighthouse and took us up to the top for a view of the fresnel lens.

Historically, this tank was filled with hog fat as fuel for the light.  It's fair to say that Chad was much more excited by this fact than I was!

We visited Cape Blanco on one of the calmest days of the year -  it's usually incredibly windy out there.

Our next stop was Bandon, a bit further up the coast.  Bandon's much more a cute little coastal town than Gold Beach was.

Bandon was also a lot more worried about whether we were having a good time than Gold Beach was.

I'm making friends with this seal, although Chad thinks it looks like I'm being strangled.

Chad notes once again that we're back in an IALA-B navigational region.  The Americans really like their channel-marking buoys and their visual ranges, especially on rivers navigable from the Pacific.

Our overnight stop for the day was the state park just south of Florence.  This is just about at the North end of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and our campsite was a stone's throw from the dunes.  The last time I saw this much sand, I was in the Sahara Desert!

Forest...

... Dunes!

Mini dunes hoodoos

Tracks from some of the many, many buggies and motorcycles racing up and down the dunes.

This sign has obviously been here a while, and will be buried soon.  They have lines of signs marking the limits of the dunes, but the sands slowly bury many of these over time and they have to be replaced.

Dune jumping!

We finished the day with a camp dinner, followed by a drive into Florence to catch the stunning sunset at another beach on the North Jetty.  A very coastal day!