Central Coast Zip! Trip - part III

After spending some time exploring the tide pools at Cape Perpetua, D and I headed north along Hwy 101 to Beverly Beach. 

(If you're just joining the story, hello! You may want to check out the archives in the sidebar to read parts 1 and 2.)

Because this was a "Zip!Trip," nothing had been said to D about our overnight accommodations. Not what town, type of lodging, nothing. He just knew it was thrifty and that I had to pack up bedding from home. Oh, and that it was something I had always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to try it until now. 

Oh yeah, and that I was really excited about it. 

Are you ready to see what it is? 

We stayed in this yurt at the Beverly Beach State Park.

A yurt is kind of a cross between a tent and a cabin.

(BTW, the moss on the tree to the left is gorgeous!)

Want to see what it looks like on the inside?

Tour of the inside of our Yurt:
a 3-person bunk bed,
lady taking pictures (optional for an additional fee),
table with chairs...

...coffee table,
futon that folds out into a double bed...

...goofy man (also optional for an additional fee)...

(Mandatory Yurt Selfie.)

Once we got settled, there was the matter of getting to the beach for the minus tide. 

A little backstory here: my brother in law is a big time agate hunter, and over Christmas he mentioned that Moolack Beach is a great place to hunt for agates, and that low tide is the best time to do it. 

A check of the local tide tables showed that at 5:24pm, Moolack Beach was due for a minus tide, which is a low tide that is lower than the average low water height. Bonus! 

I wanted to hit the beach around that time, so we bundled up in our winter coats (hey, it is winter, after all!) and grabbed our flashlights and drove the half mile over to Moolack.

Unlike Beverly Beach, which has a nice flat access from the parking area, Moolack's parking area is at the roadside, but you must navigate a steep 40' cliff down to the beach.

Here's a picture I took from near the bottom of the cliff, several years earlier. 
That's my shadow in the lower left, waving hello.
...Hello!

On this particular night, D and I were going down the cliff in the dark. But no worries, we both had flashlights. And I have been up and down that cliff before.

Remember (above) when I said I wanted to hit that beach around 5:24pm? 

Oh, I hit it all right.

The cliff was a little muddy and slick. D made it down safely but I did a Bambi and landed on my butt. To be safe, I thought it would be best to scoot the rest of the way down on my butt.

I could tell D was scared when I went down. It was dark, there was nobody around to help, we were at the bottom of a cliff, and my knee hurt like crazy.
(Although I refused to admit it at the time, I was scared, too. My knee bent the wrong way with a loud pop! when I went down.)

After a quick assessment (that felt like it took forever) I decided I was fine and was not going to let a little knee trouble and a muddy butt kill the evening.

Here we are, standing in the sinking sand, in the minus tide zone. No agates, whatsoever.

I don't really know anything about hunting agates.
Except that we were obviously looking in the wrong spot.

D took this while quickly walking backwards to retreat from the surf.
I chose to turn and run.

After deciding we had had enough of the low tide and non-agate hunting, it was time to navigate our way back up the cliff. 

Since going down the smooth south end proved to be a little slick, I thought we might be able to make it up the grooved north end a little easier. 

It was a bit easier. Unfortunately we have no pictures to prove that we weren't rescued by the coast guard helicopter, but we made it. D was able to climb up like a monkey, and I managed my way up by finally crawling up the last 10 feet or so on my hands and knees. 

What's a little mud on your clothes, besides proof you had fun?

We brushed the mud off the best we could and headed into town. Newport, Oregon.
Nothing really appealed to us on the Old Bayfront, so we ended up at Abby's Pizza, where we crashed fancy sports cars and hunted whitetail deer while waiting for our pizza to come out of the oven.

(Abby's has video games.)

Our last $1 was spent on a silly backhoe game where Every Player Wins!
A bowl of goodies spins around (think really cheap trick or treat candy with a spinning bowl) and when the player punches a button, a miniature backhoe grabs stuff out of the spinning bowl.

I won this charming little guy.
He now lives in a candy dish (with candy in it) in my dining room. 
Just because.

When it was D's turn, I jokingly said, "Hey, grab that little black ducky," and without pausing D punched the button. The backhoe reached down into the bowl, grabbed the black duck, and dropped it in the hopper. 

I nearly peed my pants laughing.

D laughed back, "You said to get him, so I did!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think the backhoe would actually be able to grab it!"

The little black duck is now our vacation mascot.

Yay, souvenirs!

The next day was left open so we could explore whatever looked interesting, without having to watch the clock. 

Coming up next: Newport and Depoe Bay

by P

If you are intrigued by this part of our Zip!Trip, here are some links with more information:

• Yurts at Beverly Beach State Park 
• Agates at the Oregon Coast