Ketchum/Sun Valley

I had read an article in a travel magazine about 'America's Alps' located in Idaho.

This article went into our bucket list as a place to visit.

Ketchum began as a silver mining town in 1880. It was once a sheep herding mecca. In 1920 Ketchum was second in worldwide sheep exports only to Sydney, Australia. Skiing first came to Ketchum out of necessity for miners, sheepherders and townsfolk as winter transportation.  In 1936 Sun Valley became a winter resort destination for the rich and famous.

With a little driving on secondary roads Ketchum was sorta on our way home. So we headed across Oregon on a secondary road headed towards Ketchum. Idaho.We drove through farmland that grew onions...

I found this so interesting as I have never seen onions grown in such big quanities and the air was actually quite yummy smelling! (I guess if you like onions!)

Once we got to Ketchum we found that the bike trails that the article talked about were every bikers dream. 40 miles of paved biking! It was great!

The town of Ketchum was your regular mountain ski town. We found the town slower than other mountain ski towns we have visited. After our 4 mile bike ride (there is only 1 rv park in this area that has hook-ups) to Ketchum we visited a local coffee bar before we headed back.

The following day we headed into Sun Valley which is a separate town right beside Ketchum. We took a bike path thru sub divisions with beautiful homes! If your looking for a summer cottage and have an extra million laying around you may be able to find a small cottage in this area!

view along the bike trail

There are many places to ski in this area. We past the Dollar ski area one of the earliest ski hills.

Then we arrived in Sun Valley...

Sun Valley Symphony multi -million dollar outdoor pavilion

Street in Sun Valley Resort

Sun Valley Resort

The Sun Valley Lodge walls are lined with photographs of every VIP imaginable who has visited the ski slopes of Sun Valley. At the back of the Lodge there is the Gretchen's Family  Restaurant that has an outside patio that faces their outside Skating Rink! (This is July, is it just me or have you heard of an outside skating rink in the summer?) We had to have lunch there...you can eat on a patio outside any time...but not often by a skating rink! The rink is open to the public for public skating. In the summer months every Saturday evening you can watch Olympic champions and World Class Skaters perform.

 The food was reasonably priced... you had you choice of butter, apricot butter or jalopeno butter for you buns.

 The portions where huge (thank goodness we biked 30 km today?)

We headed on back to our RV park...

Ketchum/Sun Valley trip was definitely worth it! We may never visit this area again...but if you enjoy biking and camping this is a relaxing spot to visit! Plus you have the bonus of cute towns to visit, good entertainment if you want and lots of places to enjoy a cup of jo!
Can't forget their fishing here too..right along the bike paths!

So tomorrow we press on north!

Depoe Bay- Newport-Florence

A bit further south, we arrived at Depoe Bay. 

It is a delightful place. 

Here they have the world's largest spouting horns that shoots geysers 40 feet 

or more above the sea wall in the winter at high tide!

It is also the site of the world's smallest navigable harbour.

It is a fishing town, and a great place to whale watch.

We didn't see any whales, 

but we got to watch a catch of fish being cleaned.

Along the sea wall they have delightful shopping

 all in view of the ocean

After crossing this bridge,

We continued on down the 101. . .(yes this is the highway.)

We arrived in Newport and visited two areas that you must see here. 

Nye Beach area, I found this area reminded me of San Francisco with it's rolling hills.

The Nye Beach area has been attracting visitors since the late 1800's.

Another district of Newport is the Bayfront, a working waterfront.

Here we saw a family catching crabs...

On the ground lies a chicken. That is the bait. In this trap they had 3 crabs.

 They can only keep the males that are over 5 1/5 inches. 

This was a lucky female. She got to go back into the ocean! 

After this... I don't think I'll eat crab again!

Tomorrow we head across the Yaquina Bay Bridge and continue south!

We past Yquina Bay Lighthouse. It is the second oldest lighthouse in Oregon. It was in service for only 3 years 1871 - 1874. It was then replaced by a brighter light nearby.

12 miles north of Florence is the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

 It was in use in 1894 and the beacon could be seen for 21 miles. 

It was rated the strongest light on the Oregon Coast. 

It now can be booked as a Bed and Breakfast.

Florence Orgeon was built on the Suislaw River. Old Town along the river is fun to visit.

We never crossed the bridge heading south at Florence...it heads into Sand Dune area.

We headed east...

I have posted so much on the Oregon Coast, yet I could continue, 

but I know it gets old so we say goodbye to the ocean and 

who knows...maybe some day we will return?

Cape Kiwanda - Lincoln City

We spent a day at the beach at Cape Kiwanda.

 Cape Kiwanda is a sandstone headland that reaches half a mile out to the sea.

So relaxing to sit and listen to the waves!

On the side of the beach was this "Sand Hill"

It called out to be climbed...so away we went...

Might as well go straight up...

Half way up...it was harder than I thought..

Phff... I'm at the top...
Now the views from the top were beautiful....

In the distance you can see Pacific City and the river that runs through it!

We continued south and arrived in Lincoln City. 

They have a great Outlet Mall! 

We found out that "Float Fairies" plant glass floats along the beach. 

If you find one you get to keep it! 

They are signed and numbered so you can find out all about the artist who made it! 

They have around 7 miles of beach...so have fun beach combing!

Tillamook & Cape Lookout

We love our cheese...over the past couple of years when we have visited the U.S.A., we have brought home Tillamook cheese. I never realized until now that Tillamook was a city on the Oregon Coast! It is located in dairy country...and believe me, when you get there....you know it's dairy country :)

You can take a tour of the factory ....

And see how they make the cheese...

These are the vaults that the milk goes in...the curds are separated from the whey.

 These big guys are going in to be aged..

Isn't it funny...cheese gets better with age...

Once it's aged...it gets cut, packaged...and each package gets checked...

well sorta... I don't know how she keeps up with them!

  Then you get to sample the cheese......forgot to get pictures...how did I manage that:?

(I think I was sampling too much!)

But then we had to have ice cream... we haven't had any for....

 I think 5 days....

It was the best I ever tasted... Mine had Whole Pecans...and lot of them!

From Tillamook we continued south on the scenic road to Cape Lookout. 

There you can hike out on a peninsula.

You are on a narrow path above the ocean. The views are amazing!

As we continued down to Pacific City...we turned a corner and saw these sand dunes.

 I have seen sand dunes...but don't think I have seen them with evergreens on them?

Seaside & Cannon Beach

We continued on down the beach to Seaside. 

Seaside was Oregon's first seashore resort,

 dating back to the mid-1800's.

Seaside has 1.8 mile promenade along the ocean 

that you can walk or bike. 

There is a turnaround on the promenade. 

This is were you find the statue of Lewis and Clark - 

 the end of their expedition west.

Further south is Cannon Beach, 

here you find the Haystack Rocks.

Cannon Beach is known for having the best beaches

 on the Oregon Coast.

More Ocean views....

On The Coast - Astoria & Warrenton

One of the things in our bucket travel list is to travel the Oregon Coast. Since we were in Seattle, we decided that this would be a good time to travel down the coast!

Being in Alaska and not having access to internet put me behind in my blogging... so as I write this we have spend 5 days along the coast and I am at a loss to where to start with my Oregon Coast Post. Everyday we see breathtaking views, the scenery is just amazing. You could spend months on this coast as every corner has a new view. The  towns are close to each other and everyone has a unique personality! We had to pick and choose the towns and views we stopped at. So the next blogs will barely touch the beauty and history of this area.

So five days ago from this writing.....
We started our coast trip...in Astoria Oregon. The first thing that impressed me were the bridges. There is a lot of water to cross along the coast.

Astoria is the oldest settlement west of the Rockies. This year it celebrates its 200th birthday. 

We stayed in Warrenton that is beside Astoria...(you have to cross another bridge to get there!) 

In Warrenton we rode our bikes to Fort Stevens State Park.

 Ocean views along the way.

We arrived at the beach. There is nothing like seeing the endless ocean!

Along this beach is the wreck of the Peter Iredale.

Interesting......

 every Buoy needs a shop!

SOS from home...

3 buckets = 1 row
HELP!!!!!!!!! 
Blessings overflowing!!!!!!

Oh dear, we're 1200 miles from home...

I knew they would come!