Darlingtonia Wayside

Our first stop today up towards Florence, Oregon was Darlingtonia Wayside. This was a must-do according to Lisa, my biologist/botanist wife. It is the only Oregon state park property dedicated to the protection of a single plant species, the Darlingtonia californica. It’s a very tiny park with a nice boardwalk to view this carnivorous flora. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the plants blooming, but never-the-less they are unique looking and fascinating even at this stage of their lifecycle.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

On our next stop of the day we were able to see the Heceta Head Lighthouse. After parking in a lot down by the Heceta Beach, we made the 1/2 mile trek up to the lighthouse, while passing by a gift shop and the keeper’s house along the way. The tower was closed, but we were able to walk around the main floor of the lighthouse and view up the spiral staircase towards the light, the strongest on the Oregon coast reaching out 21 miles.

A unique feature of this lighthouse is that there is a hiking trail directly behind it which took us even with the top of the tower and then even far above it. Notice the curtain pulled around the lens in the photo below. The light is down for maintenance right now, so the curtains prevent sunlight (what sunlight???) from starting a fire through the lens. Lisa learned this at the Umpqua Lighthouse. We hadn’t prepared adequately for a long hike, so we made it a fairly short hike with a longer one planned for later in the day.

The lighthouse keeper’s house is impressive, both in size and how well it has been upkept. We were not able to tour the inside as it is now a bed and breakfast. The website for the B&B has some awesome aerial video footage and stills of the inside. It would definitely be a cool place to spend the night.

Sutton Campground

Sutton Campground was our final destination of the day. It is located in the Siuslaw National Forest. No showers here, but all the restrooms have flush toilets and are very new and modern (which is an upgrade for a forestry campground). There is one, long hiking trail from the campground that we walked in the evening. The ground here is very soft, with a thick base of sand, pine needles, and other foliage. Apparently, a cougar was spotted in the area a month ago according a campground sign, but we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting it on our hike. 🙂

It rained throughout the night as evidence by the puddles left behind in our campsite as we were leaving the next day.