Drive from Yachats to Coos Bay, the Exploding Whale Park in Florence, and Cape Arago Tidepools

Below is a photo of where I parked last night in downtown Yachats, Oregon. The ocean is across the street from where I parked, and despite the cold, drizzly weather, there were surfers in the water.

I'm finding that nights and mornings are often rainy here, and this morning was no exception. I drove south in the direction of Coos Bay, which is my destination for tonight. Coos Bay is the one town on the Oregon coast that has a Planet Fitness, and I look forward to shaving and getting cleaned up for church tomorrow.

Florence, Oregon, is on the northern edge of a stretch of sand dunes along the Oregon coast that extend to Coos Bay. As I drove through Florence, I was intrigued by a sign pointing to "Exploding Whale Memorial Park", so I had to check it out.

The park itself is quite small, but is located across the water from some sand dunes.

The park seems to be a place where people come to walk their dogs, but I was still curious about the park's name, so I looked it up on the Internet.

Evidently, a whale got beached here in 1970 and died. The smell was very bad, and city officials decided to get rid of the whale by blowing it up. Click here to see a 3 minute newsreel of the event.

Along my drive to Coos Bay, I stopped at an Oregon State Park to see some of the sand dunes. The sand dunes are popular with ATV enthusiasts.

I need to applaud and put in a good word for Oregon State Parks system. Their fees are much more reasonable than California State Parks. Oregon residents can get an annual pass for $30. The parks also accept National Park Passes. Since I have a Lifetime Senior National Parks Pass, I don't need to pay an entrance fee at Oregon State Parks.

By contrast, California State Parks don't accept National Park Passes, and an annual pass for residents costs $195 per year for an all-parks pass, or $125 for a pass that doesn't include Southern California beaches. It is as if the California parks are no longer targeted to be enjoyed by the common man or woman.

I checked the tide tables when I arrived in Coos Bay and saw that I had a few hours before low tide, so I took a short nap. Low tide this afternoon for Coos Bay was at 4:43 pm. I planned on visiting the tide pools at Cape Arago, which is less than 10 miles from Coos Bay, so I thought the tides would be similar.

I arrived at Cape Arago at 3:35 pm, thinking I still had over an hour before low tide. People coming up from the beach told me low tide was at 2:55 pm and the water was already rising! I couldn't believe the tide times would be so different over such a short distance, but sure enough, when I looked on the Internet, Cape Arago's low tide was indeed at 2:55 and had already passed!

I hiked down to the ocean anyway, to look in some of the pools that weren't covered with water yet. There were a lot of jellyfish and seaweed on the beach.

The rocks had limpets clinging to them, and the tidepools had sea anemonies and hermit crabs. I couldn't go out very far or stay down there for very long because the tide was coming in.

I had enough time to drive to Planet Fitness and take a shower before they closed. By then, it was dark and starting to rain. I found a good spot beside a tall hedge on a residential street, and settled in for the night.