Newberry National Volcanic Monument, OR

Rain hits the coast, so we venture inland to the east side of the Cascade Mountains where we explore the Newberry National Volcanic Monument near La Pine.

Lava Lands Section (north and west of Sunriver on Highway 97)

A short hike through the great pines and spruce lead to Benham Falls which is really a series of rapids, but with all the sheer power, force and beauty of a waterfall.

You think we're not in a rainforest? Think again! Moss grows on ALL the trees around here, but what a spectacle.

Paulina Mountains Section (north and east of La Pine on Highway 97)

A steep road winds its way to the top of Paulina Peak (Paul-eye-na, not Paul-ee-na), a craggy collection of basalt rock. Unfortunately, it's a cloudy view of the Cascade Mountains to the west - Mt. Bachelor the left-most peak at 9,065 feet, and the Three Sisters to the right each around 10,000 feet.

Yep, that's snow. Paulina Peak is at almost 8,000 feet and there's snow for about the last 1,000 feet while climbing the road. The temperature is about 38F (3C) up here, but the sun is out while we're on the peak.

A closeup of Mt. Bachelor. Now you can really tell it is a volcano.

From Paulina Peak, the view to East Lake. Paulina Lake is off camera to the left. Both lakes are craters formed from the volcano that created this geological feature. The giant mass in the middle is an obsidian flow. Obsidian is, essentially, glass. It was once lava, but with little to no gas bubbles in it cooled as a clear, sometimes shiny rock. The obsidian in this flow is very clear and black. Note the lava river to the right.

The Oregon Coast, from Cannon City to Brookings

Our day-long drive from southern Idaho to the Oregon Coast takes us through the Columbia River Gorge along I-84. Rain is predicted all day, but we catch a lucky break and most of the day is dry but overcast and gloomy. The gorge is spectacular and I wish we have time to explore it thoroughly. The south side of the Columbia River, in Oregon (Washington is to the north of the river), is dotted with waterfalls, most notably Multnomah Falls (620 feet!), but it is raining by the time we reach this point, and we are anxious to get to our destination, so no stopping.

The beginning of this year's trip is centred around the Oregon Coast. It is the reason we leave in early September, although means we have to return home by the beginning of March when the weather at home can still be very nasty! We are hoping for good weather here, and for the two weeks it takes us to wind our way down Highway 101 it is mostly sunny and warm. We are told the weather is unusually good for September, and we're glad - and relieved - for that.

Around Tillamook - mmm, cheese!

Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach We start this leg of the trip staying in Netarts, just outside of Tillamook (famous for its fabulous cheese), but drive as far north as Cannon City. This is the beach in Cannon City, a great tourist town with lots of local character. Sorry, yes, we skip the town of Astoria in the north, a fishing and tourist village at the mouth of the Columbia River.

That's mist; the forest is not on fire! A beach somewhere along the drive to Cape Meares which is the northernmost headland along the "Three Capes" route. You can see how wet it is as the mist rolls off the forested cape. It often looks like this.

Painters at Hug Point State Park These painters are spending the day capturing the scenery in their own way.

The view from Cape Lookout, overlooking the state park. It is late in the afternoon (about 5:30pm) and the ocean fog is rolling back in. Many days are foggy until almost noon (allowing us to have lazy mornings) and again in the evening.

Around Pacific City - small and quiet

Brad wave-watching The views from Cape Kiwanda, the southernmost cape along the Three Capes Scenic Route, are some of the most spectacular we see. As the tide comes in, the waves explode along the rocky shoreline and sometimes even crash into each other, with the outgoing wave annihilating the incoming roller. We watch this spectacle for over an hour, taking hundreds of photos and videos.

Note the huge sand dune The beach at Cape Kiwanda is apparently the only place these dory boats still run. They are flat-bottomed fishing vessels and it is more than unsettling to watch the captain ram the boat onto the shore at full throttle. A winch then hoists the boat onto the trailer.

Around Newport - a bustling tourist town with all the attractions

Brad standing in the Devil's Punchbowl The Devil's Punchbowl north of Newport is another outstanding area we visit twice - at high tide and low tide. During high tide, the bowl is almost half full of churning water, but when the tide is out you can walk around the bottom. But watch out for "sneaker waves" - they'll soak you if you're not careful.

In the tide pools around the Punchbowl, we find these Giant Green Anemones. They are about the size of my fist, and open when in the water but close up when the tide is out. They are very brilliant green.

These harbour seals are sunning along the beach and seem impervious to our presence. The town of Newport also has a Ripley's Believe It Or Not, a Wax Works museum, and marine life exhibits and dive shows at the Undersea Gardens aquarium. You can also charter boats for fishing and whale watching.

Unfortunately, we don't know what kind of whales they are We spot numerous whales, in fact numerous pods, along the stretch of coastline north of Newport. Only a very few times does a whale show us his tail, and of course never when we are photographing them. I could whale-watch all day, and spend hours watching them hunting in the swells. A few, like this one, come very close to the cliff from where we are watching at the Cape Foulweather Lighthouse.

At Seal Rock, the volanic basalt lava has squeezed up through a fissure in the earth creating a line of rock formations along this beach. And yes, seals are swimming in the little bay.

See me standing above the channel - a fall would not be survivable! I know Cape Perpetua will be my favourite place along this coast simply when I read the name on the map. And it doesn't disappoint. Irregular basalt rock creates a deadly rugged shoreline with long cracks opening perpendicular to the coast. At Devil's Churn, the waves push into a long, narrow opening about 50 feet across, then squeeze down this narrow channel for another several hundred feet. The water here turns to thick foam resembling whipped cream.

Spounting Horn only performs when the tide is high or coming in. The spray shoots into the sunset as it sounds its release, visibly and audibly. This area of coastline around Newport, between Cape Foulweather and Cape Perpetua displays the most exceptional scenery and we spend the bulk of our time exploring here.

Around Florence - sand dune central

The Heceta Head Lighthouse and beach is the perfect place to spend a very windy (gusts around 30 mph) day as it's nicely sheltered. We stay in Florence to visit the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a stretch of sand dunes about 60 miles long, but they are not as impressive as we thought they'd be, and the weather is windy and cold - not good weather to be in the sand.

The commercial Sea Lion Caves just south of the lighthouse would be nice to see, but the sea lions are not in the caves until November. Instead, they are out in the surf hunting and fattening up for winter. Here are three small groups of sea lions in the swells; hope you can see them all.

Around Brookings - southernmost city on the Oregon Coast

Three bridges are visible from this point The highlight in this area is the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, a series of overlooks along Highway 101 north of Brookings which allows access to the Oregon Coast Trail. Natural Bridges is one of the highlights, although I think the beach is inaccessible (we don't hike the trail, but I don't think it goes down anyway, only along the forested cliffs above the surf).

Do not adjust your glasses; this photo is blurry since it super-telephoto without a tripod, but I want to include it to show some of the marine life we see. These sea stars cling to the rock (this happens to be Arch Rock) and come in orange and purple. There are also numerous green anemones hanging on the rock.

As you can see, we love our journey down the Oregon Coast, just soaking in the ruggedly stunning scenery. We focus on the natural attractions, but man-made ones abound too. Gourmet coffee, wineries, micro-breweries, lighthouses, bridges, maritime museums, cheese-making, quilting, glass-blowing, seafood restaurants and markets, ATV rentals for playing in the sand dunes, white-water rafting and jet boating on the Rogue River - there's something for everyone. But for us, we prefer watching the ocean's perpetual motion and power, seeing how the water sculpts the volcanic basalt and sandstone into rugged headlands and gorgeous stretches of beach. Nature is our attraction of choice, and the Oregon Coast certainly delivers.

City of Rocks National Reserve near Burley, Idaho

Since we're killing a couple of days before heading to the coast where it's raining, we drive south to City of Rocks. These granite pinnacles, arches and windows form visually stunning views.

The park is very popular with climbers and we find several along the Creekside Towers Trail. This is Morning Glory Spire which this young couple is climbing; a 66-year old woman was climbing a formation called Scream Cheese!

These spires, called the Twin Sisters, are interesting because the two formations were actually formed millions of years apart, yet they look so much alike.

We also plan to spend a day at the Bruneau Dunes State Park a bit further west, but honestly we find the lake beach smelly with algae and the sand dusty and dirty. Having visited so many beautiful sand dunes before - the Imperial Sand Dunes in Southern California, Kelso Dunes in Mojave National Preserve, the dunes near Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado - these don't live up to expectations and we move on after having a quick snack.

Craters of the Moon National Monument near Arco, Idaho

Sorry for such a short blog post on the Grand Tetons. They are worthy of so much more. But we have been traveling quickly and I've had little time to organize the photos and thoughts that go into this blog. We have now been on the road for about 5 weeks, and I'm finally getting around to catching up on what we did 4 weeks ago!

A couple of hours drive over the Rocky Mountains brings us into Idaho, a new state for all of us. They call it "The Gem State" and I can only assume that's because it has a high incidence of gem-quality minerals. It is mountainous, yet open meadow in a lot of places too. We focus on an area northwest of Pocatello (which always reminds me of Judy Garland, singing "Born in a Trunk" in the movie "A Star is Born" - yeah, I'm a 50s-60s musical buff).

Anyway, we're here to see the Craters of the Moon, a vast area of lava spewed forth beginning 15,000 years ago from a 52-mile (84-kilometre) series of deep fissures known as the Great Rift that cross the Snake River Plain..

It's almost unthinkable how life can exist in this place, but it does. This hearty little plant is about the size of my hand.

A close-up of some chunks of lava. Its surface is very rough. Here you can see the algae growing on it.

There are a few lava tubes in the park, but we don't explore them as our campground host convinces us to explore a much lesser known cave further to the north called Hidden Mouth Cave. And I'm glad he does as we have the place all to ourselves, although we are hiking in the rain and the trail is steep, muddy and difficult to find at times.