Heceta Lighthouse | Florence, Oregon

Monday – 29 May 2006: Florence, Oregon - We had a great day. True, any day in our RV is a great day - but we had great weather and enjoyed a spectacular day on the Oregon Coast. The sun was shining this morning in Eugene and DT was able to get in run on Pre's Trails before we hitched up and headed out on Highway 126 to Florence. We checked into a quiet RV park, Heceta Beach RV Park, just north of town and then walked down to the beach. This is Oregon and the Memorial Day crowds were terrible at the beach. Upwards to ten people were crowding the sandy shores.

Memorial Day crowds in Florence, Oregon

Today we wanted to tour through Heceta Lighthouse - named after Portuguese explorer Bruno Heceta who explored this area as an employee of the Spanish Navy in 1775. Now pronounced HA-cee-ta (rhymes with casita), it was more commonly pronounced as HECK-ah-tah when I was a child. (A local told us the pronunciation changes with the tides...) Anyway... Bruno was hired to map the Pacific shore up to the frozen bits, but since the current just flows south, he only went as far north as the mouth of the Columbia River. Bruno Heceta did conclude the water was very shallow here - 150 feet - and years later when other explorers came to check his markings, they decided he was right and named this coastal head in his honor. The shallow (150' is shallow) waters make this a great spot for grey whale mothers to temporarily leave their calves as they head to deeper waters for a meal - and today we witnessed a baby waiting for his/her Mom just below the lighthouse. The baby (this was one big baby!) came up for air (every three or four minutes) for hours this afternoon just below the lighthouse and we were very lucky to see the calf spout numerous times.

Where's Momma? Baby Grey Whale waits for dinner. Photo by DT

The path to the Heceta Lighthouse is about 1/2 mile over a gravel trail. In the spring the surrounding forest is stuffed with fabulous foliage and the walk quickly passes. On the way to the lighthouse, the trail passes by the Lighthouse Keepers Quarters, which is now a Bed & Breakfast. The house is haunted, but the girl in the gift shop assured us the ghost is only active/upset when there are renovations - otherwise, all is quiet at the inn.

The pretty path to Heceta Head Lighthouse


Keepers Quarters

This lighthouse was built between 1892-1984 and was lit with kerosene. Three Lighthouse keepers were employed full-time on-premises. The light shines 21 miles out to sea (as far as the curvature of the earth will allow). In 1963 the lighthouse was fully automated and turned over to the State of Oregon Parks Department. With today's GPS navigational systems so prevalent, the lighthouse today is only used as a supplemental beacon.

I saw the light

  
Inside the lighthouse: the staircase and a room with a view

The Oregon State Parks Department offers free lighthouse tours - 9 people at a time. We were lucky enough to have Ed (from Tucson) as our guide and he gave us a wonderful tour of the tower and answered our questions about the daily life of the keepers. If you are ever a few miles north of Florence, we urge you to stop by this fabulous lighthouse as it is an interesting part of Oregon History. If you plan enough ahead, try to arrange for a night-time tour of the light house to see the lighthouse in the best possible... er, "light".

Heceta Lighthouse


Queen Anne Lace on the lighthouse trail


Wild Iris blooming near the lighthouse


View south from Heceta Head


Another crowded Oregon beach

Just south of the lighthouse, you will find hundreds of sea lions basking in the sun. At this point you can visit the Sea Lion Caves, or simply view the sea creatures from several view points along the rocky shore. From this vista, the lone baby grey whale was easy to spot, and DT and I pointed-out the whale to tourists from Taiwan, France and Russia (in Chinese and English).

Oregon Phat Boys


Heceta Lighthouse from the vista point


Yes, this is Oregon

A few miles north of Florence you will find the Darlingtonia Botanical Gardens. A very small (18-acre) park, Darlingtonia Botanical Gardens preserves the only carnivorous plant in Oregon - the Darlingtonia californica, also called a cobra lily. Strange cobra-headed plants lure insects into their hollow tubular leaves and devour the helpless creatures!

Insect eating plants

After a rest, we went into Old Town Florence for dinner where we dined at the Waterfront Depot - an old train station turned into a restaurant - with a great view of the bay bridge. The cocktails were divine, the appetizers were good, but the dinner fell apart. The bartender actually made me a mojito with sugar cubes, fresh mint, fresh limes, rum and soda water. It was perfect. We tried fried Halloumi Cheese with garlic, capers and cilantro. I was suspicious of the cilantro, but can't pass up fried cheese. It was salty, crispy and simply wondrous. DT ordered the seared tuna tapa. It was tuna, but it was not seared. It was over-sautéed. I had grilled Alaskan wild salmon with a Caesar salad. The salad was completely normal and uninspired and the salmon was from an anorexic fish and severely over-cooked.  DT ordered a fish mélange in an Alfredo sauce over linguini and he said it was delicious - (even though the salmon in his dish was not Alaskan, nor wild). Mixed bag here. Great bar, pretty restaurant. Our advice: order a cocktail and appetizers.

Tom mixes it up at the Waterfront Depot

RV Park: Heceta Beach RV Park