Lighthouse #5 - Heceta Head

The cliffs of Oregon are so beautiful. So, so beautiful.

I could watch the waves beating against the rocks all day long.

So getting to Heceta Head was a bit of a challenge and required some turning around and backtracking because of human error.

That plus the fact that we were a little behind schedule, and we were seriously stressing that we'd miss climbing her.

We ran up to the light. Laura took off running, and ran for a long time. I've never seen her run, but she was a beast. It was awesome.

Turns out you can't really climb her, but we did get in on the last tour.

And we also managed to get our magnets before they closed. 

And we also managed to get the stamp. We asked and they were happy to unlock the door and get it out for us. Turns out the couple that got it back out for us was from Maryland and just volunteering there for 2 months. What are the odds, right?

Hopefully someday they will reopen this light for climbing. I'd really like to climb these steps. 

After we'd had the tour, bought the magnet, and gotten the stamp we could finally breath.

There is a B&B in the old keepers quarters that would be so amazing to stay at someday.

Can't say enough how gorgeous this state is. Living in Seattle, I'd been to Oregon a time or two and was just kind of meh about it. But this state, I tell ya, it won me over. I could see spending a lot of time there. Just beautiful.

When we'd finally checked all the boxes and caught our breath, we were ready to explore the paths. We thought this was funny.

The path.

We had a lot of lighthouse firsts on this trip. this first - the first time we'd looked down on a lighthouse.

And it was something else.

We also noticed that Oregon keeps its lights pristine.

Even the top of the cupola is completely clean. How'd they do that?!?

We explored all around and finally sat on some logs to enjoy the view.

It was there that one of the coolest things of the weekend happened. we spotted a whale! I'd never seen one before, and it was spectacular.

I know I've said that a lot about the road trip in general, and the lighthouse trip in particular, but it was just awesome.

All of it.

More out of order pics. 

We could have stayed in this exact spot taking pictures of the light flashing exactly all day.

And when we do stay here, we could hike up here at night and watch the light rotating from above.

We stayed as the sun started to set, but there was pizza waiting for us at home, and we still had quite a drive.

So we settled for a few more pictures.

Just a few more.

And then, sadly, it was time to go. 

We will see you again, beautiful girl. 

Ps - this one might be my favorite too.