The drive north, up the coast from Florence where we are camped, to Cape Perpetua takes you past the mountainous Oregon Dunes, Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Lighthouse. There are many turn offs that take you down to the beach, and on the return from the Cape we take a couple of them in search of tidal pools, sea lions, starfish and agates. We found them all.

First stop is the Visitor Center at Cape Perpetua. Bob and I had hiked our way around the area last year and we wanted the boys to see the view from this highest point on the Oregon coast. We watched for whales and Carson spent quite a bit of time at their agate display, noting that we weren’t finding any as large as theirs. As we took a moderate couple mile hike up through the old growth forest I tried to wrap my thoughts around the fact that Native Americans lived here 6-8000 years ago. Stopping to climb on trees and study strange fungal growths, we made our way along the brilliantly green path. Cash is usually the leader on the trail, and this day was no different.

Next stop was the tidal pools at Cooks Chasm and a visit to Thor’s Well. It was low tide so we didn’t get the full experience of this spouting hole but the boys enjoyed hunting for crabs.

Stonefield Beach on the way back south was a big highlight of the day. Tidal pools, starfish, huge rock formations to climb on and easy agate hunting. A relaxing and beautiful way to end the day.