Oregon Part 5: Thor’s Well
Thor’s well is defiantly the highlight of the trip for me and the place I wanted to see the most. It is located near Cape Perpetua at a small turnout called Cooks Chasm. The small area map doesn’t even mark the well but a spout and some other rock formations. I suppose that makes Thor’s Well an unofficial name. I’d seen photos of the well online and was eager to visit it.
We even visited it twice, right after Heceta Lighthouse at sunset and then because we backtracked south to stay in Florence for the night, the next morning again as we drove passed it for the second time. It was good to see it in two different lights. In the evening, the light was good but the tide was too low for the well to have it’s full effect. The next morning, the sun was at a sharp, low angle, but the tide was sufficiently high that we got a good “well” effect.
So the first time, at sunset, we spent most of our time taking photographs of the surrounding rocks where the waves crashed up along the crazy shoreline. Dad also got a good photo of us in action between photographs.
The next morning was just as exciting, if not better when we got to see the well in action. The waves push water through a hole in the rock and jettison it upwards. Because the surrounding rock is brought but flat, the water slowly falls back into the hole forming a well-like appearance.
There aren’t a lot of people that know about this particularly because the stop isn’t marked on the official mile-by-mile guide. A surprising omission, in my opinion. This was one of the times during the trip when I wished I’d brought my full size tripod. I had it in the car but didn’t go get it. It would have been useful to get really long exposures and the height above the rocks that the mini tripod does not offer.
We spent a good hour, hour and a half each time we were at the well and each time we were only accompanied by a few other people.
