Smith Rock State Park

We went to Smith Rock State Park today. It is a rustically beautiful park just outside of Terrebonne, OR. There is no camping allowed as it is a day park only ($5.00 fee). There are some equestrian accessible trails and dogs are allowed, on leash only, please.

The Crooked River runs through the area. We saw geese, ducks, and snakes. We went what I can only guess is early in the season and even though school is just out there were quite a few people there.

Surprisingly, to me anyway, the park allows cliff climbing and there were people doing just that. There was even a group of young teens or pre-teens getting ready to go on a climb.

We went to the farthest parking lot and this was the scene.

My husband got brave and stepped out onto the edge. My hands got sweaty just watching him so I stayed back, held the dogs' leashes and took a few pictures. After a few minutes I yelled at him to get back because I was just getting too nervous!

Check out the little guy that kept him company on the edge (right behind his right leg).
This is looking down!
On the way down to the river we passed this tree with "flowers".




These "caves" were all over the cliff sides. This one just happened to be next to the trail.

Notice the "balancing" rock in the middle.

And look in the middle of this picture.

A climber. We saw three groups of climbers today!

We just went on a small hike today. Obviously much easier going down than coming back up!

Sure glad we didn't have to go up on the cliff face!

Saturday In Cambria

Thursday Vicki and I went to Cambria after the showing of my house. Our husbands were there with us by early Friday evening. On Saturday we decided to go and explore the San Simeon area. A friend of Vicki's had told her that the Hearsts had an old dump site way out and at low tide you could see a lot of discarded things from way back in the day, including a tractor (!!).

Vicki and I had taken this route once before but hadn't gone as far the alleged dump site. This would be the first time my husband had been there.

We started out around 10:30, which was supposed to be the time of the low tide for the area. It was kind of foggy when we started out, but not as cold as it looked.

This picture doesn't show it too well, but a lot of the trees had hanging moss which made me think of Christmas trees adorned with green tinsel.

If you've been reading this blog for a couple of years you may remember these trees from this post.

They haven't changed much.
There's also this shot...

...and these trees.

The first one was taken with the flash, the second (below) was without.
The wild coast line.

And here's that path on the way back, with and without the flash.
The without shots make me think of "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe" movie.

We found a dumpsite with mostly broken and burnt shards of pottery and crockery, but there was no tractor sightings. It was a good hike anyway, and don't tell anyone we were actually trespassing. Hey, we weren't the only ones out there!

On the way back the marine layer had pulled back just a tad.

Same shot, different angle.

Ditto. Notice the two hunky guys on the left.

Later that night another couple joined us and we had a great dinner of green salad, pasta alfredo, garlic bread, and chicken picatta.

Not to mention copious amounts of vino.

What did I say last time? "Life is good!"

Indeed!

In Oregon

Both Google Maps and Mapquest were showing me driving to my sister in law's house in Oregon would take 12 hours. Additionally they showed that to get to Redding it would take 6 hours so it stands to reason of course that the remainder of the trip would take 6 hours.

Vicki and I got up and had a simple breakfast at the hotel and we were on the road at about 9:00. I figured that would put us in Eugene around four or four thirty, with a quick lunch break.

We crossed the Oregon border (which I had planned on taking a picture of the welcome sign but I was yacking too much with Vicki and I missed it) and soon we were passing through Medford. As we were driving we noticed one of the mileage signs indicated we had about 120 miles to go, yet it wasn't quite noon yet.

Something wasn't computing and I think it was the Google Maps and Mapquest distance/time calculators.

We ended up having a nice little lunch at the Apple Peddler in Sutherlin and headed back on the road. We got to my sister in law's house around 2:30, a full two hours ahead of our projected time.

We took a little walk around part of her property. My goal is to be able to have a similar type of set up. About half of her property is wooded and she cut a lot of little trails throughout.

Here we are at her garden heading for the woods.

A main trail.



Here's her cute house in the middle of her property.
And obviously there is a lot of wildlife there. Here she is feeding "her girls".
We won't meet up with the realtor until tomorrow so I'll have more later!

In Redding

My friend Vicki and I left Bakersfield this morning at about 8am headed for Redding. We stopped for lunch at an In N Out Burger for a quick lunch just north of Sacramento and started back out. We were just passing through Anderson (about 7 miles south of Redding) when we saw the Shasta Outlet Mall so we had to stop and do a little shopping.

An hour and a half later we were back on the road and in less than thirty minutes we were safely ensconced in our hotel room.

Here are pictures of our room.

From the entry just passed the bathroom is the "kitchen" area which consists of a microwave, refrigerator, ice bucket, and coffee machine.

Just passed the "kitchen" is the "living" area, showing the tv...
...and the sitting area, with the desk on the side.

Now for the bed area. Vicki is calling her husband to let him know we made it to Redding.

Looking back through the bed area towards the sitting area.
The tv in the sitting area from the sofa.
And of course the bathroom.
Just lovely!
So there you have it! So exciting, I know.

Tomorrow we head for Oregon and my s.i.l.'s place. We are half way there!

Harmony Headlands State Park

Late Wednesday afternoon after we walked the San Simeon Creek Trail we were relaxing at my friend Vicki's cottage. There was a knock on the door and I looked out the window. It was my husband!

He had come to spend the night and had taken the following day off. What a fun surprise!

Vicki's friend Sue, who had come with us on the first walk, had to go back home early Thursday. We remaining people decided to try a new trail, as in new to Vicki; a trail she had not been on yet. It was called Harmony Headlands State Park, just a few miles from Cambria.

To access the trail we had to cross an ancient stone bridge. Underneath were a whole mess of little turtles (click on the pictures to enlarge) and a bunch of swallows that were flitting too fast to photograph.

The scenery on this trail was quite different from the previous days' trail. It was mostly pasture type land with just a few trees and bushes here and there.

The main trail was actually a nice hard-packed dirt road.

Off in the distance at the bottom of the "v" you can see the ocean. That was were we were headed.

The trail goes by those trees on the right.

And just like the previous day a deer suddenly sprang up before us and bounded up the hillside. (Look at the top center of the hill.)

And suddenly we were at the ocean.

We figured from the map that the trail is about three miles long. The trails are all beautiful and very lovely walks.

The worst thing about each walk was that we later found a few of these on us! Icky ticks! But that's mainly because this has been a wet and mild winter. I'm sure glad we don't have to worry about these all the time!