After settling into their AirBnB overlooking the ocean just outside Yachats, Oregon, Astrid and Bjorn drove into the town to eat clams and fish ’n chips at Luna Sea Restaurant, then headed out to Thor’s Well at Cape Perpetua Scenic Area.
Astrid followed Bjorn over a plain of lava rock covered with barnacles, tiny clams, and a myriad of tidal pool life, to a rather circular hole in the rock bed.
“Thor’s Well has a hole in the side of it,” she said. Because it did.
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| Thor\’s Well |
But the moniker was sufficient. Half a dozen young women were standing around the stony void near the ocean edge before Astrid and Bjorn got there. Situated down from a pull-off along 101 Oregon Coast Highway, it was a large hole in the stone, and a photographic-must.
The sky was overcast, the wind rushed in from the ocean in chilly gusts. After about half an hour of watching Bjorn shoot pictures of the ocean waves playing in and out of the “well,” Astrid retreated to a warmer spot.
Bjorn followed shortly, changed out lenses and gave her the keys to the car.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she yelled after him as he walked away toward the cold, raging sea. The ocean was waiting, grabbing at the rocks, which were covered with slippery spots, especially around the yawning cavern of Thor’s Well.
As Astrid walked, she suddenly realized, “I don’t recognize this spot.” And sure enough, she had done something stupid and gotten lost. The path led her to a sand blow-out down to the beach again. She backtracked, found the right path, and arrived at the car just a few minutes before Bjorn.
***
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| Green Salmon Coffee Co. |
“What’s the schedule for today,” Astrid asked between sips of the very good house coffee at Green Salmon Coffee Co. the next day at breakfast.
“Tidal Pools, scenic highways, short hike,” Bjorn said.
“It’s okay, all good. So much better than walking around a huge city any day.”
“But you give me that “Snorrie” look sometimes …”
“Only when I’m freezing. I have to be able to leave to go back to the car–and it was cold last night. Really though, I love being outside exploring new areas,” she reassured him.
Before taking off back to Thor’s Well Beach, they put on more layers–all their layers. It was June, they expected a little warmth but found none on the wind-whipped ocean shores.
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| Thor’s Well Beach |
The morning sun was strong when they arrived back at Thor’s Well, a dozen tourists were walking gingerly over the volcanic and igneous rocks, combing the tidal pools for photographic fodder. Astrid had put on all her long sleeves and a hat and found a spot to sit and write and watch.
***
Driving south on Oregon 101, they stopped in Bandon, Oregon and ate lunch at Tony’s Crab Shack, then took a sea-side walk on Bandon Beach in the sunny, but chilly weather. Astrid hid behind the gigantic rocks sticking out of the wet, flat beach. Walking on damp, flat sand was easy but the wind was whipping cold and raw, urging the visitors to take their pictures and leave as soon as possible.
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| Thor’s Well Beach |
In traveling, when the distraction of responsibilities and routines back in Michigan fell away and freed up space for luxuriant and random thought, Astrid always looked out for clues to the components of life–as if life were a math problem with addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and the answer would unlock any conundrum she had. The wonder and thoughts rose from watching other people, how they looked, what showed on their faces, their actions, their words, their appearances. Strange and wonderfully new landscapes helped draw her attention to environmental influences on how people lived.
Astrid mused that if the coast in Florida looked and acted like the one she saw in Oregon–rocks, cliffs, yes, patches of sand, but few and far between–not so many people would live there and want to vacation there. Also, it was cold.
At some point when driving south, Oregon 101 turned into the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, with many “view-point” pull-off-type areas.
“Being an amateur writer, the use of the word ‘view-point’ in this instance is interesting. When we were in California in 2014, they used the word “turn-out,” Pennsylvania uses “scenic overview.” Interesting that there’s not a universally used word for it,” Astrid noted.
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| A View on the Hike |
The first stop was at Secret Beach, down a trail through exquisite woods, streams, and moss everywhere. They came out on a ledge of rock overlooking a beach squeezed between two pillars of rock.
***
The Best Smell Ever
At the Thunder Rock Cove View Point, Astrid and Bjorn took a trail that undulated on the curves and rocks of the lush, coastal forest, up and down small hills, then down, down, down.
“No, no this isn’t it ….” Bjorn said, stopping to look around. He wanted to get a sun-setting-type picture through the sparse crowd of tall rocks scattered along the coast at that spot. So they turned around and backtracked, Astrid pausing at an extraordinary sensory experience, but then jogged to catch up to Bjorn at a small bridge.
“I think it’s this way, the path to get down there,” Bjorn offered.
There was a path, yes, faint through underbrush, with dead stumps, rocks and inclines that were not meant for humans to traverse. After failing to get to where they wanted to be, they tried the first trail again, but this time Bjorn stopped at the top of a small hill.
“Wow,” he said and inhaled. “There is a really good smell here.”
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| A Boulder on Secret Beach |
“Yes! I smelled it on the way in … it’s right in one spot …” Astrid joined him in the area, inhaling the fragrance.
It was a singular spot of concentrated forest aromatics, like a swarm of gnats, but an aroma. The sun cut through the canopy of coastal cedar-like trees, allowing the evening sun to warm the otherwise cool salty sea-air, and mixed with the ageless composted tree-dirt particles to make an aromatic and singularly attractive experience. Astrid walked back and forth in the aromatic cloud, noting the edges of where it began and ended, trying to decipher what it was. It was concentrated Pacific Coast Forest scent, and it was divine.
“I wish we could take it with us,\” Bjorn said.
“You can’t take a picture of that,” Astrid said.
After checking into the hotel in Brookings, Oregon, they had dinner at Oxenfree Public House restaurant in the town, a restaurant that knows how to fill stomachs with very good food.
Because of fatigue Astrid stayed at the hotel while Bjorn went back to Thunder Rock Viewpoint on a night excursion-hike to the Natural Bridge beach for evening photos.
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| Secret Beach/Thunder Rock Cove |
Thanks for Reading!
Not I 