To Damnation and Back

Cheryl and I ventured out on an impromptu road trip, heading southbound through Oregon and northern California.  We spent our first night in "Track Town USA," Eugene, Oregon.  We saw Hayward Field, where the legendary Steve Prefontaine once ran for the University of Oregon.  Heading south, we circumnavigated Crater Lake. We spent the next night in Medford, Oregon, and had an enjoyable dinner with the legendary theological game show host Pastor Evan Goeglein, of Table Talk Radio fame. The next day we headed southwest towards northern California, hiking through the redwoods down to the coast, and then driving the coast northwards on U.S. 101 to Coos Bay, Oregon, where we bunked for the night. The next day we hiked the sand dunes of the coast, and then headed for McMinnville to visit the Evergreen Air & Space Museum before heading home. If you're into aviation, it's be worth the trip. Here's a few photos.

              Crater Lake from the north rim. It's the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,949 feet.

        That's incredibly blue water! Click on the photo and take a close look at the shoreline.

The laked formed after the collapse of an old volcano. The little cone called Wizard Island formed from a subsequent eruption.

                                      Mt. Thielsen on the horizon in the distance.

Many of you may not recognize this guy hermaphrodite, the banana slug. They're quite common on the west coast, often munching on the leaves of your garden. Note the iridescent dried slug slime.

We came across these National Park Service workers while hiking the Damnation Trail from U.S. 101 down to the coast, about 2 1/2 miles one way and a 1,000 foot elevation change. A redwood had fallen across the trail. They'd been there for a day-and-a-half already, working on getting it off the trail. When we climbed back out, they had a section of the tree cut out so we could walk on the trail between the remaining portions of the trunk. This was a little tree - only about five feet in diameter. The Husqvarna-wielding man in the orange chaps is on top of the tree's trunk.

               Cheryl is dwarfed by redwood giants as they pierce the low-hanging clouds.

Sand dunes inhabit much of the Oregon coast. Here on the John Dellenback Trail they extend in nearly two miles from the beach.

The Newport Cafe in Newport, Oregon, on U.S. 101. They've got great halibut and clam chowder.

A C-47, the military version of the DC-3, rests peacefully under the outstretched wing of the Spruce Goose, the largest aircraft ever built.

A World War II twin-engine and twin-tailed P-38. The Germans called it the fork-tailed devil. You can see the tail of the Spruce Goose in the background.

Inside the Spruce Goose looking aft. It reminds me of the 1967 television show "The Time Tunnel."

                                         The Time Tunnel.  20th Century Fox