Oregon, day 4-6

Day Four.
You'll notice food seems to play a big role in our hiking holidays, so we start our day with a hearty breakfast, though today doesn't actually involve much hiking.
We continue our journey down the Pacific Coast Highway, taking advantage of the many scenic pull outs along the way.
The first one we come to is Boilers Bay which is just North of Depoe Bay, a place renowned for it's resident whales, so I'm very excited to spot the tell tale spout of a Grey Whale.
Boiler Bay certainly lives up to it's name with wild churning waters.

Further stops at Rock Creek and Devils Punch Bowl give us some amazing views of the fog rolling in.

We spend the next few hours at Yaquina Head , where it happens to be Public Land Day , so a few tutorials later we are awarded with our free t-shirts.  The tutorials where actually very interesting and took us to several areas of the Head, including the lighthouse  and the seal colony.

We make our way to Yachats for the night and stay in the quaint Rock Park Cottages , the owners are extremely friendly and tell us about lots of hiking at Perpetua Bay which is just South of Yachats.  We go for a mile stroll to see the Sprouting Horn, the tide pools, and the Devils Churn.  Then back to our cottage to enjoy a quick beer before walking to the local Mexican for a Super Margarita and burritos.


Day Five.
We have the best breakfast ever, and if you ever find yourself in Yachats for breakfast you MUST go to the Green Salmon Tea & Coffee house, trust me the ques are worth it!  After breakfast we stroll through the local farmers market and pick up some fresh fruit and veg for the day.
The weather, which can only be described as soggy, does not put us off and we take on a 6.5 mile loop hike through the Perpetua forrest.  It is beautiful and the rain only adds to the atmosphere.... it also adds to the weight of our clothes as by the time we get back to the car we are soaked!  Even my creative poncho wearing (as a skirt over my jeans) does nothing to keep me dry.
Another quick hike in the rain to Heceta Head Lighthouse , and then we've had just about enough.
We drive to Charleston where we think we'll find a sweet hotel.  Now, we have done lots of driving holidays in the states, and always leave hotels to chance, so occasionally we are going to get it wrong.  Suffice to say I had to put a t-shirt over the pillow case and I refused to shower in the morning as I was scared to go barefoot in the bathroom.  The only saving grace was a nice restaurant on the water next door, where we enjoyed a lovely bit of albacore tuna.

Day Six.
Charleston is a fishing port, and when I wake up it is extremely foggy.  It's screaming for me to go out with my camera.  I really enjoyed the atmosphere, I could hear seals in the water, but couldn't see the water for the fog.  I'm just lucky I didn't fall in.

The rest of the day is filled with more stops along scenic pullouts.  We see an island with over a 1000 seals, another whale spout, and I almost step on a snake.

We stay the night in Gold Beach, in some cozy cabins with super comfy lazy boys.  After a few beers we make our way to Spinners, for a very tasty dinner of steak and crab cakes.