In our effort to get to Las Vegas in 3 days we are rushing through Oregon and California. That means crazy long drives with few stops, and as a result the beautiful Oregon coastline flashed by us for most of the day. That was until we came close to Newport. We’d finally had enough of the vistas from the car and wanted to get down to the water and stretch our legs a bit. After 400-some kilometers that was not an unwelcome pause.

Kim found a clam fossil in the clay wall

The pictures pretty much say it all: The coast this time of year is deserted, blustery and harsh. But it is also absolutely beautiful. The cloudy skies provided perfect lighting conditions to get some great photos and we had the run of the enormous and fine grained beach. That of course lead to Kim deciding to climb the clay hill (he always has to climb any challenging wall it seems). After getting about half way up he started to slide and he grabbed at the wall to keep from falling. At the bottom he discovered the rock he had pulled out of the clay was actually a fossil of not one but two clam shells! Very impressive.

The total tally for today is 525km. Tomorrow’s ride will take us to the Oregon Caves right at the Oregon/California border and then as far down along the I-5 as we can handle.