I woke up to the rain having subsided, leaving a damp “cool” which was quite nice. The rest stop I was at had a bathroom, so I used that and brushed my teeth. I hopped in the car, with my first stop being only a few minutes away, “Big Lookout”, a very descriptive name. It was a spot I saw last night, and while not eligible as a sleeping spot, was something I put in my mind to visit today.
The views here were of epic proportion, seeing the waves crash into the rocks all the way back up the coast left me thinking about how much I did not envy the logs that get caught up in those waves and bashed against the shore over and over.
My next stop was another recommendation from the guy in Salem, “Devils Punchbowl Arch”, about 40 minutes further south. When I got there, I took a look around and while it had a lot more immense views, I couldn’t find the arch the name talks about. Taking a look back now, it looks like it’s on the other side of the parking lot that I was on, which is only a few steps away. How I didn’t notice it is beyond me, but oh well, plenty more to see in other places.
I did a bit more driving to get down to Newport, where I went to the “Ocean Cafe”, a nice little spot by the beach, which unfortunately did not have the ocean views that I was hoping for. Regardless, I got a hot chocolate and did some work for an hour or so before heading off.
I don’t know if it’s just me, Americans, or if I’ve just been unlucky, but I’ve found people seem to not be as open to pleasantries as they are in Canada. For example, I mentioned to the barista that the menu board they used looked identical to the one in my hometown cafe, and she seemed wholly uninterested in that fact and just wanted me to get on with my order. It’s not like it was busy either, I was the only person there the entire time, apart from I presume another employee who came in later and had a loud, profanity-laced conversation with the barista. Good hot chocolate, but probably not somewhere I’d go back to.
I drove another 35 minutes south to a lookout for the Heceta Head Lighthouse, which took me down off the hill right up to the beach, with a partial view of the lighthouse, but still a nice view of the rocks off the coast, a river, and an impressive bridge for the highway.
I kept on going down the coast with the goal of finding the best spot to see the famous Oregon sand dunes. I’ve seen them before, but I’ve never had a chance to go out and explore them. During that drive, I was getting a bit weary about whether I should venture out into the dunes as the rain got worse and visibility took a nosedive.
My concerns were validated when I got a heart-attack inducing interruption to my podcast in the form of an emergency alert, which came through at full volume on both my watch and car speakers (as I connect my phone to my CarPlay unit). It was a flood warning for Douglas County (where I was) and the surrounding areas, which made sense based on the rivers I was crossing that were, compared to satellite imagery, swollen up to 5 times their normal flow height, with water lapping at some of the bridges I was crossing.
I pulled over in the next town to assess my options, and eventually decided I’d head inland and start the drive to Carson City, Nevada (my next capital city), though I knew I wouldn’t make it all the way before dark. This plan was almost immediately foiled by a landslide that had closed Oregon Route 38 in both directions. With going south blocked by flooding, going east blocked by a landslide, and going west blocked by the entire pacific ocean, I was left with no real option but to go back up north and cut inland at the next road into Eugene.
I ended up taking Oregon Route 126 to Eugene, which followed the very swollen Siuslaw river. When I was able to glance over at the river I saw water up to the embankment, almost at road level. Water had flowed into developed areas of rural properties, and parts of the river that I presume to be light rapids under normal conditions were now raging rapids spanning the width of the small valleys that housed them.
Despite the conditions, the car behind me (who kept a nice distance and never tried to pass despite us sometimes being 20 mph under the speed limit) and I made it safely to Eugene, where I posted up in a motel for the night, not wanting to find myself inundated by floodwaters overnight by camping in the forest.