We made it!

Can’t believe that the day is here – we will be at the coast of Oregon, which is the main reason for this trip!  We have seen some beautiful things along the way, and have done some fun things!  And now we head for the coast!

We had a long drive from Sparks, Nevada to Brookings, Oregon (our first stop and the most southern point along the Oregon coast) – almost 9 hours!

We didn’t mind the long drive at all because we had that answered prayer about our hitch! And our trailer was all repaired!  And we had NO flat tires on the truck!  WHEW!

There was some beautiful scenery along the way – and it was so interesting to see a lot of forest that had been burned!   A weird sight for sure!

After almost nine hours, we arrived at the coast!

SO exciting to be here! We stayed at a campground called At Rivers Edge, and the name was very appropriate!  We were right along the river!

After settling in for the night, we went over our plan for the next day. Our adventure was a jet boat ride with a company called Jerry’s Rogue Jet Boats.

Before our boat ride, we decided to do some sightseeing along the coast. WOW!  Amazing!  First stop was ARCH ROCK, which I had seen in a YouTube video (of course!) –

The color of the water was so green!

Off to the boat ride!  It was chilly that day and VERY windy!  We bundled up and boarded the boat!

We left the dock and headed on our way!  It was fun from the very beginning – the river was beautiful, our boat driver was wonderful, and it was a great experience!  The ride was on the Rogue river, and we went 32 miles up the river!  After the 32 mile ride, we stopped at a lodge and had a wonderful dinner!

As we were eating, there were blue jays flying around and coming pretty close to us!

Bob put a French fry and a piece of bread on the railing next to  our table, and watch what happened…

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Our bellies full from a great meal, we hopped back on the boat for the journey back to the dock – we were excited to see the scenery from the opposite view now! It’s hard to describe how beautiful the river was, the rocks, the mountains, the wildlife…

We saw osprey nests and ospreys flying – even one with a fish in his talons!

And we had the excitement of seeing a bald eagle!

AND…on our way back, we stopped and watched two men fishing because one of them clearly had a big fish on the line – it was a HUGE salmon and we got to watch him reel it in!!! SO FUN!  The salmon here are in abundance and people are fishing all along the Rogue river!

Here are some photos and videos of our boat ride! Enjoy!

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What a day!!! So much fun!

The next day was going to be another day of sightseeing along the coast – we woke up to a LOT of fog, which was also so pretty!  As the morning wore on, the fog wore off!

Enjoy some of the photos of the Oregon coast – it’s actually hard to describe how beautiful it is – it seems as if one stop is prettier than the previous one!

We even found wild blackberries – of course we had to try them! Boy, were they YUMMY!

One of the most photographed rock formations on the Oregon coast is the Natural Bridges – we stopped by to see why – WOW – it was spectacular!  Enjoy…

After seeing the coast, we decided to go see something totally different – about 8 miles inland is a trail in the Oregon Redwood Forest! YES OREGON, NOT CALIFORNIA! (although we are only several miles from California!). The road to get up to the Redwood Trail was CRAZY – it was four miles, but took us TWENTY minutes – the road was NOT paved and was VERY narrow – sometimes I wondered if the truck would make it! Thank goodness for a four-wheel drive truck – there was no way to turn around, and I kept praying that no other vehicle would be coming DOWN the mountain because I wasn’t sure how we would pass each other – it definitely was NOT wide enough – but no other vehicles came down! At one point, I wasn’t sure this road was going anywhere other than up this mountain!  After twenty nerve-wracking minutes, we reached the top!  And there was the Redwood Trail – wow!!!!  About a mile walk, meandering through the forest and amongst the giant redwoods!  The air was cool and crisp and we enjoyed every minute!  It was WELL worth the crazy ride up! And then we had to go back down!

Boy, we slept well that night – especially Leonard who had to navigate up that road!

Next stop, Bandon, Oregon!

We stayed at the Bullards Beach State Park which was really nice and “woodsy” – but right along a beach also!  We took a trip down to see the beach after we checked in, and it was awesome!  There was more fog that had rolled in, and the waves were crazy!

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Of course we had to go see more of the Oregon coast, so after another great night’s sleep, we headed to Kronenberg Park, also known as Coquille Point – it overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is the home of COSMO THE TUFTED PUFFIN!

Here is the information about Cosmo:

“A tufted puffin flaps its short wings underwater in swift pursuit of tasty fish and squid. The big, colorful beak gives them nickname sea parrot. Marine debris threatens puffins because they often mistake it for food.  Since they cannot digest trash, it fills their stomachs, leading to starvation. COSMO is made of garbage picked up from nearby beaches…NOTHING has been colored or dyed! This sculpture is part of a program to remove trash from the beaches and turn it into treasure!”

There is a sign that shows some of the debris that is part of Cosmo and it tells the viewer to try and find these items – there are combs, flip flops, empty plastic bottles, tires, lighters, and all sorts of things!  It’s crazy!

There is a workshop in Old Town Bandon where they create these works of art!  Here are some other creations!

 

After a long time at the park and the beach, we went to another landmark here in Bandon  – FACE ROCK – where you see the HUGE rock out in the ocean that  looks JUST like a natural profile gazing upward like a human face! One of the legends about it goes like this:  the profile belongs to Ewauna, a princess who was turned to stone while forever gazing at the sky for her lost people.

The beach around Face Rock was just beautiful – there were huge waves, amazing rocks, sea caves, and even tide pools!

 

Another “famous” rock on this beach is The Wizard’s Hat – the name is perfect as you can see!

The time on these beaches was so wonderful, and we hated to leave!  There is so much to see!  But it was almost 2:00 when we were done and we were hungry!  So off we went to Old Town Bandon for lunch and shopping!

We had lunch on the water…what else but FISH AND CHIPS!  “When in Rome…”

Well, it was a wonderful couple of days! Brookings and Bandon are two coastal Oregon towns with so much to offer!  And the beaches!!!! WOW!

We will be heading up the coast to see much more – can’t wait to share it with you!

Thank you as always for coming along with us as we explore this beautiful part of our country!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…