Shore Acres on Cape Arago

The End of the Road

Oregon has 256 amazing state parks to visit. Taking the day off from bike riding and volunteering, we headed north towards Coos Bay then on to the Cape Arago Highway to Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago which are at the end of the road. 

Perched on rugged sandstone cliffs high above the ocean is Shore Acres State Park. Once a grand estate of timber baron Louis Simpson, it has lush gardens with plants and flowers from all over the world. Something is in bloom almost every day of the year.

Views from the overlook

 We have seen pictures of the park lit up with holiday lights from Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve that are placed by volunteers each year.

It was a pleasant morning as we walked through the gardens and along the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

A Japanese style garden with a lily pond.

 The roses were just starting to bloom for Father's Day as the rhododendrons were fading.

 Winter storms crash against the walls of the cliffs. But it was a sunny calm day for us as we hiked down to Simpson Beach to checkout the tidepools.

This is the first time we have seen these in tide pools.

The holes in these rocks are made by piddocks, a mollusk similar to a clam that grind into the rocks for protection.

A volunteer couple for the US Dept of Fish and Wildlife were stationed at a stop along the Arago Highway. We had seen their van on the shores near Bandon the previous day. They invited us and other people to view the noisy seals, sea lions and not so noisy eagles through their scopes. They spend 5 months along the Oregon Coast and 5 on Florida's Panhandle each year.

Shell Island below is a National Wildlife Refuge for seals and sea lions. The North Cove Trail leads to the area for beachcombing and fishing. The volunteers rotate through a few protected areas to educate people and protect the wildlife by reminding people not to touch the baby seals that can be left for several days on the beach while they hunt. One lady was found lying on the beach next to a small seal, petting it while her dog sniffed it. With the human and dog scent on it, I am not sure how that baby seal fared.

We couldn't miss Cape Arago Lighthouse in Charleston, Oregon, a quaint fishing village west of Coos Bay. Other than the large mosquitos, June has been a great time to visit the coast.

Mt Desert Island, Maine

 

Slowing down for a while

Our plans changed as we left Raymond, Maine earlier than we had planned. We could continue on to Quebec City, Canada a few weeks earlier than we had planned. Lubec or Campobello or the Maritime Provinces sounded interesting. We had been to Acadia National Park 13 years ago and thought this would be a good place to spend the next 9 days regrouping.

 

We took it easy our first few days on Mt Desert Island with a drive to Bar Harbor. This is cruise ship season. They dock just beyond the island in the picture and are tendered into the town. This day was a small ship with 700 passengers and the town was packed. I can't imagine how congested it is when two larger ships arrive later in the season.

You never know if you will have sunshine or fog.

Glooscap ("Good Spirit") is a wooden sculpture of a North American.

 

Seawall Picnic area in the southwest island was a great stop to check out the tide pools and watch the fog rolling across the bay.

Bass Harbor lighthouse

 We headed over to the carriage trails for a bike ride a couple of mornings. Between 1913 and 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., financed and directed the construction of 57 miles of Carriage Roads for the use of hikers, bikers, horse riders, and horse-drawn carriages on the island.

 Carriage road bridges, no cars here.

 A stop at Eagle Lake

Acadia National Park's Island Explorer, a shuttle bus, is a great way to get around the island. We had ridden our bikes further than we had planned wanting to see what was around the next corner repeatedly. I voted to catch the shuttle part of the way back to our parking spot. I asked a young lady for a little help since she had a shuttle map and didn't want to end up even further from the truck than we already were. She is also a camp nurse 15 minutes from where we were in Raymond. She had driven 3 hours to Acadia on her day off . We had a quick but fun visit on the way to our drop off at Bubble Pond. I hope her drive back was easy and uneventful.

 Jordan Pond House

 

Helmet hair

 Jordan Pond House has been serving popovers and tea since the 1890s. We remembered how good they were on our last visit. We arrived in time for seafood chowder to go with those popovers for lunch.

Bubble Mountains beyond Jordan's Pond

 Sculpture made from mussels

 

 Top of Cadillac Mountain View. I can't believe we rode our bike up here when we were last here 13 years ago.

We stopped at Parson's Fish Market for scallops to go with our salads and cioppino soup.

We caught the bus early on our last day to beat the crowds along the Ocean Trail from Sand Beach to Otter Point.

Beehive Trailhead is across the road from Sand Beach and was calling our names.

It does look like a beehive and that is where we were headed.

 

 View from the top.

 

The freezer is full of blueberries and there was plenty to keep us busy and happy during our ten days here. It is pretty nice to be back on our time schedule and do or not, whatever we would like each day.