The Great Northwest: Part Two -- along the coast

The second part of our recent travels took us from the Oregon Coast, down through California's Redwood coast and ended up at a great County Park at Mount Madonna. 

We left the Columbia River Gorge, zipped by Portland, and started a week of exploring what was mostly new territory for us. We talked with the Oregon State Park folks on the phone, and took a chance on arriving at a popular beach park without reservations for the night. We were welcomed with a smile, and private campsite surrounded by shrubbery just behind the beach dunes. Cape Lookout State Park occupies a stretch of coast almost due east of Portland, and it was busy but not crowded.

Morning coffee in "Snowflake"

Lunch in a diner at Tillamook

Cape Lookout was just one of the many state parks scattered along the coast for the entire length of the state. We picked it because we had never seen it before, and we were able to get in! 

On the approach from the highway it was not all that impressive, but the campground turned out to be excellent, like all Oregon parks, with hookups available for those who want them and more open/isolated sites for tent campers who those who don't. Predictably, the section with electrical hookups where we stayed tended to be mostly retired or older travelers, and the tent area was full of younger couple and families.

But we were alone on the beach for sunset

And one dog walker

And this little girl had all that sand to play with

And Pat explored the stream flowing into the sea

Our only company was young people stacking rocks

One of many arch rocks offshore

And lots of plants along the trails

After two days lazing on the beach, and enjoying the cool weather, we were lured to our friends' home at Scapoose, on a tributary of the Columbia River, near Portland.

Michael and Sylvia have been friends since Sacramento, when we all sailed, camped, ate, drank wine and traveled the Mexican coast with them in their sailboat. After retiring from Sac State they dropped anchor on San Francisco Bay for a while at Point Richmond, then cashed out their condo and bought a floating home in Oregon. It is a three-bedroom house that floats, not a houseboat. Complete with decks, great views, a nature sanctuary across the waterway, and neighbors who paddle by. Michael is still a journalist, writing columns for a New York newspaper and other stuff, and Sylvia has re-invented herself  from her original professor role through Zumba and Yoga teacher, and now has a life coaching business based on the Internet.  The only thing they've done that surprised me is  added a lovely dog to the family. Turns out a floating home is safer than a sailboat on the ocean.

Catching up on the front deck

The neighbor, who provided salmon earlier, paddles by with his dog

The view out the back door. 

The greenery out back is vegetation growing on floating logs, the base for all the floating homes. It is old growth wood that has been wet for years, and does not sink. If you don't set a house on top, you get a garden every Spring.

The neighbor and his boat

Even I eat vegetarian when they cook.

Cape Blanco near Port Orford, Oregon, was our next stop after a boat tour of the neighboring houses in the area.

  The park at Cape Blanco may have been the best we experienced, but with so many good places it is hard to choose.

Another extraordinary place

The day we arrived it was storming, with what was initially a cool rain off the ocean that by morning turned into a howling gale -- for just a short while.

The campsite was tucked into the trees back from the edge of the bluff over the ocean.  

A good fire helped keep us warm, and the camper kept us dry.

About a half-mile to the North was the Cape Blanco lighthouse, a popular site and destination for visitors.

The lighthouse was closed due to high winds

But the park was still stunning, including a taste of real Northwest weather. No captions needed.

We went into Port Orford for some clam chowder at the Crazy Norwegian, and discovered a treasure: a 1930s-40s Coast Guard coastal watch station museum, with a great trail, big trees, views of the ocean, and a reminder that in this place the United States was attacked by a submarine-based airplane during WW2. 

Coast Guard crews launched rescue boats from this cove.

And then back to the beach.

Taking the same bluff-top trail to the South we came to the road down to the beach, one of most unusual we former Floridians have seen. It was almost paved with giant bleached logs, washed out the the rivers into the sea during winter storms, and then carried up on the beach by high tides.

Cape Blanco was a hard place to leave, but we had been on the road two weeks and had a family gathering further south.

But not before one-night stop at Gold Bluff campground at Prairie Creek State Park, back in California. Where the elk, not the deer, enjoy beachfront campground privileges.

Traffic was unpredictable

We moved further south, discovering a great park we had never visited: MacKirchener State Park near Fort Bragg. Great beaches. Great campground. Lots of trails and chances to watch for whales along the coast. Plus tide pools and sea lions.

The state park is on the right and runs for miles along the beach

A segment of Glass Beach at Fort Bragg

Our final stop on the 3,000 mile trip was at Mount Madonna County Park in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco.

Our daughter and son-in-law have been camping here for decades, and his family long before that. It is a quiet spot created on the former summer estate of a California land baron/cattlemen named Miller. Miller once owned more than a million acres stretching from Gilroy way into the San Joaquin Valley, and even up into Oregon and Washington.

The county has turned it into a place of respite. with emphasis on hiking trails, easy walks, an archery course and the ruins of the Miller summer home.

The pictures speak:

Footnote: sorry about the overload (tmi)  but I could not help myself.

Safe travels.

Road Trip -- Coasting Oregon toward Seattle

Murphys, Ca -- We ended our   week of camping on the North Coast of California on a Saturday and headed north following Route 101 along the ocean.

The trip took us past California's Prairie Creek State Park where we first met Banana Slugs 30 years earlier, and we spotted a few herds of elk grazing in fields along the roadside.
As we left California we could see off to the South dark smoke moving out over the ocean, a sign of the fires that were just beginning to ravage the west coast. It was the last time we would see that for the next two weeks.

Saturday is not the best day to look for a motel room on one of the busiest vacation weeks of the year, but we landed in a soft bed in a clean room in Gold Beach, Oregon, just a block or so away from the Rogue River and about 40 miles above the state line.

Gold Beach is not close to any major population area, but it is popular for fishing and camping, jet boat trips up the river and great scenic views.

We like it as a good spot to clean up, take care of some minor restocking of food supplies for the camper van, and good places to eat.  On our last trip through town we ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat fundraiser for the local high school, but we missed that this year.

We stayed in a 1970's-styled motel, refurbished, clean and available, just off the main drag. The place we stayed before, right on the river, was booked solid. The new/old motel had the added charm of a fenced-in backyard just outside our window filled with chickens. The people were courteous. The room was ample and not too expensive. Just right.

We are particularly fond of a breakfast cafe and bookstore we found on an earlier trip on this route. You can get fresh brewed coffee, bagels or burritos and a big variety of books and other readables all in one place. The customers included us, a few other tourists, fishermen and a Sunday school class of teenagers getting ready for church.

Books and coffee in Gold Beach

We headed north, primarily because there was no room in the inn for a second night in town, so  we took our time along the spectacular Oregon coast. It's hard to describe how each turn in the road brings another spectacular cliff over the ocean, or a sandy strip of beach, or a turnout to a park or a lighthouse.

It is a glorious part of the U.S. that everyone should see. Oregon loves visitors, and treats visitors and residents to an amazing number of parks, large and small, scattered along the coastal road. It seems there is a chance to stop and look every mile or two, and a campground or state park every ten miles or so. Even so, it was peak vacation season and the road was busy and the stops fairly busy with people -- not crowded, just busy.

Out by the rocks is a marine sanctuary

There are so many lighthouses along this coast, maintained primarily as historical sites now that GPS navigation rules the waves, that you could spend a week and never see them all.

We stopped briefly at Umpqua Lighthouse where our in-laws had served as volunteers, but stopped and explored at Cape Blanco which showed on the map as being on a point out over the ocean. It probably was, but when we got there a blanket of fog had rolled in, the wind was howling off the  cold ocean, and we only had the sound of waves crashing on the cliffs below to assure us the water was there. It did not matter, it was still spectacular.

Pat walks to the lighthouse at Cape Blanco

The docents were well-informed and helpful, full of history and enthusiasm for their beautiful part of the world.

The coast is thinly populated in this area, but towns such as Sixes, Langlois, Bandon and Port Orford offer anything a visitor could want.

We took our time and arrived in Coos Bay, a larger and somewhat industrial town, in the afternoon, found a motel room and settled in.

Here a happy surprise caught up with us, thanks to Facebook. We discovered that old friends and colleagues from The Modesto Bee -- Bob and Becky Bazemore -- were in Oregon working at their jobs for the Good Sams Club.  Basically, they travel in their very large RV all over Oregon and evaluate Recreational Vehicle Parks for the organization. Their "home" near Coos Bay was right on the beach at a town called Charlestown, and they just happened to know of a good place to eat seafood.
A meeting, as they say, was quickly arranged.

The place, Jack's Crab Shack, was closing soon so they went ahead, got a table and arranged for beer while we drove over to meet them. We were the last customers in the place, and the hosts were gracious and the food delicious. Bob ad I both had Dungeness  Crabs and Becky and Pat had the Crab Cakes. It was the real deal, a great meal and a great reunion.

Bob and Becky love what they do, traveling much of the year, some for work and some for pleasure. They live in a giant 45 foot motor home with their happy dog. They spend part of the year working in Oregon, part traveling to see daughters and grandchildren, and part hanging out with friends in the Florida Keys. They both look 20 years younger: trim, fit and tanned. They took an early retirement from The Bee more than 20 years ago, and have clearly been living the good life on coasts, ski resorts and Alaska -- wherever the spirit moves them.

The dog in Becky's lap was eating Bob's ear -- no damage done

Back when Bob was a city editor at The Bee, and Becky a reporter, he gave me the best ski lessons I ever had -- all in one weekend day. I never became an expert -- he had been on ski patrol -- but he helped me move from novice to comfortable intermediate as a skier and I always will be grateful.
It was a great mini-reunion, which we hope to continue in the Fall.

After  a big seafood dinner, a lot of catching up on families and friends, we got another night's rest ad headed north again.
Next: More coasts, more friends waiting.