Winnebago Voyage: Dunes!

We drove about 65 miles from Waldport to Winchester Bay and started seeing big dunes on our way. We checked into a beautiful campground at a marina, got set up, and took off in the car. Our first stop was the Dean Creek elk viewing area, where there is a herd of over 100 Roosevelt elk. Some were out posing for photographs in the field.

We then drove further back north to the dunes overlook. We spoke with a nice US forest ranger who told us about the dunes here. These are about 250 feet tall, and others further south are up to 500 feet! The Oregon coast is roughly 45% dunes and the rest is rocky. Unlike the NC dunes which need protection as barriers, many of the Oregon dunes are open for walking or riding with off-road vehicles. It seems really strange not to have warnings everywhere to stay off the dunes!

We rode back into Florence and walked on their picturesque boardwalk. We met another Boston named Baxter!

Next, we came back to Winchester Bay and rode up to the Umpqua Lighthouse. The museum had already closed, so we missed that. There's a whale-watching platform, but we still haven't seen a whale. This isn't migrating season, so the only ones we might see are some of the few who stay here for the summer.

We rode out to the dunes area and through some campgrounds where there were dozens of campers with their "toy haulers", and ATV's everywhere. We saw huge dunes with ATV's and motorcycles climbing them. It's a huge sport here! We heard that they also sand-board, but we didn't see those. The sand is very fine and soft.

We ate another good seafood dinner on a converted houseboat. After we ate, we told them that we missed hushpuppies, and they said they do have them but don't get requests very often!