Lincoln City is home to the "D" river, which is touted as the shortest one in the world. The source is Devil's Lake and the total length of the river is about 1/4 mile.
When we drove over the bridge we saw someone kayaking down the river. Why bother? I wondered.
We didn't have kayaks so we hiked or waded the length of the river instead. Meghan was especially keen to wade the entire length. Dennis hiked.
You can see the headwaters there in the background.
It's a short retaining wall that was built to keep in some exotic carp species that was brought in to eat the invasive aquatic weeds.
Devils Lake isn't all that big either, but there are a lot of homes built along the shoreline.
Gigi's down there photographing it all.
This sign made me a bit worried about Meghan wading down the river, but it didn't look like too big a problem after I read through the info.
If you click on the image you can see the topo map of the area surrounding the lake and river.
Some info about the restoration project for the lake.
Western Gulls liked the driftwood out in the lake.
Here are a couple of adults. . .
and some juveniles. I always find it interesting to see how different the juvenile plumage is from the adult plumage. It sometimes takes several years for young birds to change to the adult pattern.
Several crows were hanging about as well.
This one had just taken a bath and was shaking out the water.
Wow - Meghan made it to the beach. That's the first river she's travelled in its entirety.
We traveled southward and stopped at many of the scenic overlooks. Here's a friendly reminder that this coastline isn't always as peaceful as it seems. All along the coast are warning signs that you are entering a tsunami zone, and, usually, there is a map with an evacuation route.
This is a typical scenic view of the Oregon coastline. The landscape is dominated by basalt rocks that are the legacy of the immense sheet lava flows from eastern Oregon volcanoes.
Pigeon Guillemots are very abundant all along the coastline.
We stopped in Depot Bay for saltwater taffy and to visit the whale watching information center. The bay is full of harbor seals and seal lions. This is a harbor seal.
The whale watching center is right next to the bridge that crosses the outlet to the bay. A family of Western Gulls was in full view of the underpass to the bridge.
I think the parent had a small crab that it had already deshelled. It was hard to tell what it was from where I was watching.
The nest site was pretty exposed to human viewers, but probably was sheltered from most predators.
The chicks didn't seem to mind being watched.
Common Murres are also abundant along the Oregon coast line. We saw them by the thousands at some spots.
The sign is no reflection of the wonderful company Dennis and Gigi are as traveling companions. It was a lot of fun to show them the Oregon coastline.
No comment needed, but you wonder about the citizens of Depot Bay, or the tourists traveling through town.
Next stop was Cape Foulweather. Click on the image to read a bit about Oregon history. The name is pretty descriptive, though.
The view is beautiful despite the gloomy name of the place. This viewpoint overlooks the Inn at Otter Crest. I stayed there in the late 1970's when my mother and I took a short trip together to go see the King Tut exhibit in Seattle.
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