Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Day 8 - Florence, OR

When we woke up this morning the sky was grey and it was raining.  This put doubts in our minds about going for a dune buggy ride, but when our wagon master said we are going "rain or shine" we decided we better get ready.  

As we were leaving the park, the clouds were dissipating and the sun was trying to shine. It turned out to be a beautiful day.









We arrived at Sandunes Frontier, met our dune buggy drivers, Darrin and Ward, and proceeded to get in the buggies.  We were in for a very exciting ride. 
























Heading out through the trees, it looked like any other wooded road until it opened up to the vast sand dunes. There is a 53 mile stretch of dunes. We could see sand forever.

The ups and downs were like riding on a roller coaster. Hang on for dear life!!

The dunes are changing daily according to the wind and rain, it is a continuous cycle. In the trees could be found deer, black bear or coyotes, of which we saw none. There are five tree islands which the guides use for navigation or marking things that need attention.

In the 1940's the dunes were used as a military training sight so some treasures are still found once in a while.  At one point we stopped to take a little break where we could see the ocean. At that point we could also see trees that had been eroded by the wind and were almost totally gone.
  

On the way back to our starting point, Darrin told us there are huckleberry bushes and edible mushrooms along the road. And we did see a squirrel run across the road. 

 



After our exhilarating ride, we were hungry. You know how that is?!!  So some of us headed for the restaurant to sample some more of Florence's fine seafood.













The sign post in Old Town Florence 
was very interesting.







Submitted by:  Carol Gosline #8






















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