Day trip

Wandering, water fountains, & whales!

Fountains

A unique feature of the rugged Oregon coast is its saltwater fountains. Thor’s Well is the most well-known. When you time the tides just right it appears that the ocean is draining through a giant hole in the rocks with the water maybe running to the center of the earth. It’s not just a slow drain, but a dramatic rush of huge amounts of water sucking into the hole. Turns out it’s just running out of another hole deeper down in the rock, but the sight is amazing.

A similar idea to Thor’s Well is the Devil’s Churn. A crack in the rocks fills with waves but instead of the filling being dramatic it’s the collision of incoming and outgoing waves that provides the drama–an explosion of water! It’s loud, it sprays up into the air, and if you’re lucky you can watch those nearby who are unsuspecting, jump and gasp in surprise. Fun stuff.

Whales

If I haven’t mentioned it before, the coast is where you can see whales! If the sight of a spout or tail, or for those lucky few who see a breach, doesn’t make you squeal like a four-year-old and leave you content to stand in one spot for hours, then you are either a coastal resident or a fisherman. Visitors who don’t get the opportunity to see whales every day view sightings as a big bonus of a trip to the sea and Cape Perpetua offers ideal whale spotting. Seeing a whale takes patience and luck, but you’ll often know when one is around simply by the group of people, pointing, holding binoculars, and frantically yelling “WHALE”. Even those who think if you’ve seen one spout you’ve seen them all, probably feel some small sense of awe though they may not admit it.