Sky watch over Bend

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Hope that you all had a great day
Tonight i took this shot of the skies, what could be better than this shot for Turkey Day

This is my World

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Umpqua Lighthouse:
I wanted to finish up with the light house from last weeks post, which is below this one. Do you see the handles outside the windows ? We were told that they had to go out and clean the windows daily, and with the high winds they would have to hang on to something or get blown off, and that is why they have these handles put on.
If you click on the photo you may be able to read what is posted here, also shows the photo of how they held on while cleaning the glass.

Umpqua Lighthouse Part 12

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.At the entrance to Winchester Bay and at the mouth of the Umpqua River, stands a sentinel of the ocean, casting its red and white beams of light some 20 miles out to sea. The 65-foot tower is situated on a hill 100 feet above sea level surrounded by US Coast Guard buildings and a Museum.

An earlier light structure, the first on the Oregon Coast, was built in 1857 on the south side of the river. It fell into the swollen water seven years later during a storm when the water eroded away the sand.

The current lighthouse was started in 1890 and was illuminated in 1894. It is the sister lighthouse to the one at Heceta Head just a few miles north of Florence. Both structures were built from the same plans.

We took the tour to see the inside and this is the first time i have ever gone inside a lighthouse, so this was very interesting, our tour guide was very good in telling the story of the light house. There were 3 flights of stairs a total of 68 stairs i think he said

Can you imagine having to climb those on a daily bases?You would never have to worry about getting enough excersie

The Umpqua Light shines through a first order Fresnel lens made of 616 glass prisms handcrafted in France and weighing two tons. It is a beautiful display of fine craftsmanship and produces a spectacular colored light show at dusk.
This is especially true if there is a very light mist in the air. The light rotates out to sea and on the trees behind it on the landward side. The light shines 24 hours a day, but visit after dark or before sunrise, if you possibly can. As you enter Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, down a winding road, the light's rainbow beacon rotates through the tall pines with alternating white, white and red beams. The 65 foot tower is brick covered with white stucco, but you will not be able to take you eyes off this fantastic lens.
The lens assembly was originally turned by a clockwork mechanism much like a grandfather clock, powered by a huge weight which had to be wound up by the lightkeeper every four hours.

This motive power is now performed by an electric motor and monitored by sophisticated equipment, which notifies the Coast Guard station if a malfunction occurs.
The original oil lamp has been replaced with a high powered 1,000 watt electric bulb. A spare bulb is mounted on a panel, which automatically moves it into place should the first one burn out.

In November of 1983 the old chariot wheel mechanism that rotates the light broke down. The Coast Guard promptly installed an airport beacon on the tower and made plans to remove the original lens. Local residents launched a storm of protest until the Coast Guard relented and repaired the rotating apparatus.
The lighthouse was restored by the US Coast Guard and is maintained by them.

Lunch at Anchor Grill Part 11

Ok so another one of the stupidest things we did was leave Tugman campground not knowing that we were only a few miles from Winchester. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! Well anyway we got a campground at Winchester called Windy Cove nice state park, i think there was only about 3 other rigs there the whole night. Must say that everything we saw aroung the areas we went too was pretty much empty. Well anyway full hookup was $18.00
Windy Cove A (541-271-4138) and Windy Cove B (541-271-5634) are located adjacent to Salmon Harbor at Winchester Bay via Hwy 101, 4 miles south of Reedsport. Camp sites at Windy Cove A are “first come, first serve”. 21 hookup sites (out of 40) are reservable at Windy Cove B through the park office (541-957-7001). We also accept reservations for 8 of our 29

Anyway we decided to get some lunch before heading over to the Umpqua Lighthouse
and decided to stop at the Anchor Grill, you see those bushes well there must of been about 50 birds that decided to land in there, and let me tell ya, i tried real hard to capture them with my camera, but have to say they hid very well in there.

The restaurant was nice and clean, with nice atmosphere.
Nevada had there Clam Chowder which he said was very good, we knew that we didn't want to stop at any Mo's restaruant because the last few times we did there clam chowder tasted more like potatoe soup than clam.
I chose the mushroom burger and waffle fries, very good as well so i highly recommend this place for a decent meal.

They had this hanging on the wall and thought it interesting made me smile anyway

Tugman State Park part 10

Eel Lake is brimming with fishing opportunities. The brush-lined shore, steep drop-off and underwater structure makes it the perfect lake for a bass boat and bass fishing. The lake has a good population of largemouth bass (some running up to five pounds), and other fish species include crappie, rainbow trout (which are stocked), steelhead, and coho salmon. All coho, even those under 15 inches must be released. There is a fully-accessible fishing dock at the day use area near the boat ramp. Trout and bass are often caught from the dock.
Only saw one lady fishing off the dock, said she didn't catch anything Very pretty setting however. Click on photos for better viewing.



They also have a really nice park there.



Our campsite at Tugman state park

We stayed there one day and half, as we didn't realize just how close we were from the other campground, oh well it was only $12 for full hookups here, a few bucks cheaper than the other place. It was a nice park this is the only photos i got from there. They didn't have very many people there either i think maybe 6 or 7 rigs, all the yurts said reserved, but we never saw a soul there that night or early in the morning, so guessing they don't rent them out in the off season.Maybe only on weekends.

Golden And Silver Falls Part 9

Our next stop before going to Tugman State Campground was Golden & Silver Falls, Well let me tell you if you have never been there and would like to go PLEASE DO NOT GO IN YOUR MOTOR HOME! Not having internet connection i didn't do much research on this place, and in the brochure it didn't mention not taking your motor home. Didn't mention no turn outs, didn't mention very very narrow road, didn't mention that it really was not a stay over night area either, Just that it was a State Park. Ok so dumby us took the motor home, and tow into this god forsaken road that was almost no wider then the motor home itself, drop off on the one side.
Also was not told it was also a logging road on part of it, till we had this guy in a truck behind us stop next to us when we did finally find a spot to pull over to let him pass, he stopped us and yelled at us, saying this is a darn logging road and logging trucks can come around any of these curves at any given time. Well we were so taken back we really didn't have much of a response to him accept we were sorry. Sure would of liked to give him a ear full after we had time to think about it. Like it wasn't our fault that there was no signs stating the fact we shouldn't be on this darn road with a motor home. But nope didn't get a chance to do that. Hope he reads my blog dumb idiot.He should of told us not to go any farther. Oh well we have been in difficult places before, thank goodness tho there was no logging trucks coming.
So here we are at the end of the road, yup its a dead end, at the park. Nevada had to unhitch the Jeep so that we could turn around, thank goodness there was only 2 other rigs there, they did have a lady ranger there picking up god knows what, i was thinking it was dog poop LOL anyway we told her they should have signs up saying no motor homes, and she said i guess i have never seen anyone with a motor home come down here. But i must say there were houses along this road and most did have a motor home or trailer or 5th wheel, guess they took there chances when they left there place.
So here is the trail that lead to Silver Falls, Princess all anxious to explore as always
This tree was growing right out of that rock, be sure to click on photos for better viewing
Lots of moss on that rock
Princess stopping and looking at us" saying whats taking you so long "?


A hidden gem in the dense coastal forests of southwest Oregon, Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area may be hard to find, but it's well worth the 24-mile drive from Highway 101. The small parking and picnic area are located along the banks of Glenn and Silver Creeks and is shaded by large maple, alder, and Oregon myrtle trees. Hiking trails wind through scenic canyons to each of the waterfalls -- they plunge over sheer rock cliffs to moss covered boulders 100 feet below.

And here is the falls, be sure you click on the photos, you can see the rainbow on foot of the falls.




And no, we didn't do the trail to the other one as it was already late in the day and all we wanted to do was get out of there. And prayed we wouldn't run into any other rigs or logging trucks, it was the longest 24 miles as the road also was not the smoothest.

Our camping spot part 8

Well this is the end of this portion of our 1 1/2 day stay at Shore Acre Campground,Here is the spot that we were camped in, nice the creek ran right next to us, but not much water in it
This tree was in the next campsite which i just had to take a photo of as it is so strange looking,
Be sure to click on the photo to see it better
And here is Nevada putting the jeep in the right gear so we can tow it. Sure is nice to have a tow car so you can go around and explore. My next set of photos will be at Tugman Campground. So be sure and stop back to see the rest of our trip.