Located next to the Columbia River North jetty, you can see ships coming and going through the mouth of the river.
Fort Canby, at the mouth of the Columbia river is one of the nicest Ocean Beach parks in the Washington State Park system.
Located next to the Columbia River North jetty, you can see ships coming
and going through the mouth of the river.
With the massive amount of water and debris coming out of the Columbia
River, there is a lot of driftwood on the beach.
Travelling down 101 from Fort Canby to Newport OR, we stopped near Cannon Beach and found these views.
View up the beach.
Much of the Oregon Coast is a result of volcanic activity adding layer
after layer of basalt, which has since worn down with weather leaving
large haystacks and sandy shorelines.
After stopping at Depoe Bay to view the smallest harbor on the Oregon Coast, we continued on to Newport where we spent the night at South Beach State Park.
Travelling South from Newport on a cloudy day, we stopped at Sea Lion Caves 11 miles north of
Florence. Sea Lion Caves is the largest sea cave in the world. This cave is
home to a large number of Stellar Sea Lions which are fascinating to watch,
unfortunately the cave is too dark for still photography, so we have no
pictures of the Sea Lions. We did get some pictures of the Heceta Head
Lighthouse from the cave.
We spent two nights in Jessie M. Honeyman
Memorial State Park just south of Florence. Florence is the north
end of the Famous Oregon Dunes and the Oregon Dunes National
Recreation Area.
Three miles east of Reedsport on Oregon
Highway 38 is the Dean
Creek Elk Viewing Area. Even though it was noon when we visited, we
still saw plenty of elk.
Cross the Umpqua River south of Reedsport, and come to the Umpqua Lighthouse State
Park. This beautiful lighthouse is also a popular whale watching
area, although we didn't see any whales--it was the wrong time of the
year.
Turn right off highway 101 in South Bend (Near Coos Bay) and drive out
through Sunset Bay, Shore Acres, and ultimately, Cape Arago State
Park. This is a narrow, windy road but we did see fairly large
motorhomes at the lookout.
We rejoined highway 101 just north of Bandon-By-The-Sea. We spent two
nights at the Bandon RV
Park. This park is situated within easy walking distance of downtown
Bandon.
The Coquille River Lighthouse across the river from Bandon.
Travel south from Bandon for about six miles and come to the West Coast Game Park Safari. This
park contains many animals from around the world, including some endangered
species.
Nikki pets a baby tiger and lynx.
Cape Blanco is
the westernmost point in the contiguous 48 United States. There is also a
small state
park. When we were there the wind blew right through us actually
rocking the motorhome.
From Cape Blanco, we went to Gold Beach where we stayed at Four Seasons Resort. The next day we went up the Rogue River on the Mail boat, a Jet boat trip well worthwhile. We saw two black bears along the bank feasting on blackberries, several deer, and numerous birds, including an osprey catch a fish.
The Rogue River looking downstream from the Four Seasons campground. We had
a front row view of the river from our front window.
Deer at the water's edge along the Rogue River.
Saw this black bear (a total of three on the trip) while travelling up the
Rogue.
From Gold Beach, we went on down the coast to Brookings where we stayed at Harris Beach State Park.
From Brookings we travelled south into California, where we stayed at the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. We had a relatively close encounter with a black bear while hiking in the park. He came within about 40 yards before he saw us and took off over the hill before I could get a picture off.
On our way on down the coast, we stopped at Trees of
Mystery.
This, known as the Cathedral Tree is actually the location of many weddings.
To get an idea of its beginnings, see this:
This collection of trees will be like the previous Cathedral tree in a few
hundred years. The sign in front of the trees says that you can book your
wedding there starting in about 600 years.
The brotherhood tree is something like 19 feet in diameter.
View over the hill from the top of the Sky Trail.
This tree was struck by lightning in the 1950's, and today all that is left
of one of the largest trees in the preserve is this.
From there we continued to Arcata where we spent the night at Mad River RV Park before taking California hwy 299 to Redding, where we stayed at Mountain Gate RV Park. The next day took us over the Siskyious to Roseburg where we stayed at Twin Rivers Vacation RV Park. Then on up I-5 home.