Oregon Coast Adventure- Salishan Spit

This involved a little bit of cheating but was such an amazing hike. We headed out to Lincoln City and parked at The Resort at Salishan near the shops.







 We hiked the public access trail toward the beach past the golf course and pretended to be rich and on vacation (I'm sure we were very convincing in our hiking clothes :-).  On the way we found this great tree to climb.







We got down to a very foggy, hazy beach that we had mostly to ourselves- a rarity in Lincoln City!







Amy did some dabbling in the wet sandy tidepools.  We changed into shorts very quickly once the dabbling started.







We made a beautiful sand castle together.







We continued down the beach, splashing in the waves as we went.






It was a perfect day and a beautiful, deserted beach to enjoy- listening to the seagulls, enjoying the smell of salt water and the sound of the ocean. watching the waves, and finding crabs and shells.







Even with my growing pregnant belly, I can still see my toes and enjoy feeling the sand between them.







Several miles down the beach when we finally got to the end of the spit we found the community of seals enjoying the day on the beach and swimming!

It was so amazing just to sit and enjoy watching the seals interact with each other, lay on the beach, play, and swim.  We tried to be respectful and not get too close to them.  They noticed us arrive but did not seem too concerned.







What a fun adventure!  Now whenever I go to Lincoln City, I will gaze across the water to the spit and remember my time with the seals!

In search of wildflowers

It was early June and I was ready for a longer hike after my recovery from surgery.  I always like to see a new place so we headed south to Fish Lake and Echo Basin hoping to see some wildflowers.










Fish lake was great!  We had our picnic lunch here and strolled through a piece of history.










This site has an old homestead and wagon road on it.  It was fun to poke around and imagine the pioneer days.










There was an old forest service building as well, and hiking up the wagon road we came to a pioneer woman's grave.  She died in the winter in childbirth stuck in a snowstorm. 










There was still a Trillium here.  I had missed the short trillium season due to surgery, so I was excited to find one!










We spent a little more time among the historical buildings and then drove to echo basin for a bit of a climb in search of wildflowers.










The hiking book I was referring to said Echo Basin should be hike able in early May so I figured the wildflowers would just be starting after the snow melt.   We got our first indication that something was wrong when there was a huge tree being cleared from the forest service road.  The worker let us through but said there was another tree about a mile from the trailhead.










We decided to go ahead and hike the mile and head up.  The road was lovely and we did see some wildflowers and streams while hiking up the forest service road.










The trail was narrow through a beautiful forest.  Unfortunately it was also snow covered :-)










Amy really enjoyed the snow at first but eventually did not want to walk in it anymore.  We continued up for as long as we were able with her.










We got to a large open meadow covered in snow.  The few very small and struggling flowers we did see were hearty survivors!










Sarah gave me quite a hard time about the "wildflower hike" but it was quite a memorable adventure!

Catherine Creek Wildflowers

Catherine Creek is an amazing place to meander and enjoy wildflowers, so the hiking crew headed up to the Washington side of the gorge to enjoy the view and flowers.







The flowers were great as usual








Amy kept track of the colors and we took a new path up a hill for a challenge.








There were many deep breaths, water, and snack breaks as we continued up the path.








We continued to enjoy the flowers, trees, open meadows, and views of the gorge.








It was a fun hike and Amy did a great job as always.








I am sure there will be many trips back here to enjoy the gorge!