Our last outing in Cannon
Beach before heading south to Florence was a hike in the Ecola State Park.
Dan and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to pronounce
"Ecola". Is it pronounced E. Cola like the dreaded E. Coli? Or, was
it more like "eee-cola",
like the lozenge Ricola? Or maybe neither, maybe it was pronounced
"Echo-la". We never found out officially, but we did find out what
the word means. It turns out Ecola (or E-cu-lah) is the Chinook word for whale,
and this area was thus named by Merriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark) for a
beached whale they had found after an arduous search, led by Sacagawea. Far cry
from the tiny E. Coli microorganism, huh?
The hike we took in the park this day was
another experience of stunning views of the coast and trails winding through
old-growth forests. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to explore
portions of the Oregon Coast Trail during our stay in Cannon Beach, and I am
looking forward to further explorations in both Florence and Gold Beach as we
continue south over the next few weeks. Here are some snapshots of our hike.
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