Thursday, October 10, 2019
I saw a great episode of Grant's Getaways on TV and next thing I knew we were driving out the 26 toward the Pacific Ocean looking for Lower Nehalem River Road. Found it - no problem and saw many trees changing to yellow along the way but it seems a bit early for the orange and red colors that make us crazy!!!
The road was a two lane country road for awhile and then it became one and then turned to dirt and then rocks and gravel. But it did get worse because 'since the flood' had washed out much of the road there were a number of trucks and several road crews sharing this one lane muddy road!!! One guy told me "just go around" as if there wasn't a drop off of a thousand feet down to a rugged river in case I misjudged. We kept looking for Nehalem Falls because that is the first time the salmon returning from the ocean on this river have to jump up to navigate over the rocks and falls and they aren't very good at it causing viewers to get a better chance to see this amazing miracle! Well, we were just about to give up when we saw a gentleman with his camera getting into his car. Perfect - we asked him if he happened to know where the falls were located and he pointed to the very large sign behind him that said - yep - NEHALEM FALLS!
The falls were just beautiful and we really enjoyed the time we spent there -but no salmon. You never know about salmon runs - you just have to be in the right place at the right time!
We were planning to go back to the 26 and take the Lower Nehalem River Road the other direction to the Jewell Wildlife Area and watch the elk fighting for breeding rights in the runt but decided instead to keep going out to Garibaldi for lunch and maybe spot the elk herd that frequents that area walking around the town and annoying the locals.
We had a great lunch of fish n chips at Kelley's Place on the Nehalem Bay - but no elk!
Along the seaside drive back up to our cutoff we did see a young buck and a young doe grazing along the highway and we had a wonderful day in our beautiful Oregon!
NO SALMON, NO ELK, NO PROBLEM! LOL
Gabi
