Blog 2 3rd – 9th June Oregon Pacific

3^rd – 9^th June   Coast Route from Oregon to California

Atago Peninsula near Coos Bay

We’ve become rather fond of Highway 101, as we’ve travelled down it through Oregon and into California. While tracing the Pacific coastline it passes through many beautiful State and National Parks. Our campgrounds continue to be in some stunning locations …lagoons, Ocean beaches and sequoia forests.

We loved the glorious Gold Bluffs’ Beach (so named because of the gold ‘rush’ that wasn’t), along a dusty 8 mile track away from the rest of the world. It was also the location for the opening scenes in Jurassic Park 2.

Rick on a Salt Eroded Rock

Shore Acres, near Coos Bay on the Oregon coast, was a stunning spot for this formal garden, overlooking some of the ‘most dramatic geology on the West Coast’ The 45 million years old Coaledo rock Formation tilts at 45 degrees as the Juan de Fuca Plate collides with the North America Plate and occasionally causes an earthquake.  The especially interesting rocks are created by salt erosion and demand closer examination.

Shore Acres, once a grand home,  now has quite a large team of gardeners – one was weeding the lawns and to pass the time of day, Rosi observed to him that he’d certainly got a life-time job there…… it was only later that we read the back of their overalls the word ‘Inmate’ – oops!

Junior Barn for $4335 (£2600) Any Orders?

American Humour

We’re puzzled by a number of things – the sign offering us a ‘Van Worming Service’ and the one informing us the Freeway was having a ‘seismic retrofit’ (any ideas? All we could see was grasscutting). We’ve also learnt that sheds are also known as ‘junior barns’  - very appropriate for this one we found outside Home Depot which would look great in Heather’s back garden.  And is this a good example of American sense of humour … Oh, and we’ve found Hard Scrabble Creek for Rick and Laura, and just for Betty a travelling library is a bookmobile. We also spotted Bear Butte Creek….

Wonderful trails include the magnificent  Fern Canyon, in Prairie Creek State Park; a shady canyon with 50ft high walls draped in ferns showering in gently cascading water, while the pebbly stream below was criss-crossed with fallen logs to walk on and over – soooo beautiful. 

Wildlife features much on our walking trails (32 miles so far). Rick managed to photograph the chipmunk cleaning up our campfire griddle, and  seals at Simpson Reef – it’s the largest ‘haul-out’ on the Oregon Coast. We’ve watched Brown Pelicans, sea eagles, red squirrels and excitingly, we’ve also seen one of the 19,000 whales that move up the Pacific Coast at 3 mph.

We have been stalked by an elk – seriously. She crept up on us so quietly that we didn’t see her until she was only 15ft behind us. Did she have a new calf nearby? We took no chances and moved swiftly back into the forest. As we moved along, so did she, keeping parallel with us for a good 10 minutes. Rather unsettling!

We nattered to the owners of a German van and learnt they’d imported it from Hamburg to Halifax 2 years ago at a cost of 3500 euros… a plan to ponder!   They fly over every six months or so and take it on another expedition, this time they are circumnavigating the USA.

American Staple Food

We found a WiFi  laundrette in Eureka (and I’m sure there’s much more to discover there ….). On the American scale our bag of pants and pyjamas felt very small and insignificant in comparison with other loads but it was the cheapest wash and dry we’ve found in Europe (and I assure you, we know about these things). Rick found an amazing coffee / doughnut shop nearby run by a lovely Japanese couple – spot the bear’s claws donuts which run red with strawberry jam when you bite them.

In 1895, the mailboat used to travel up the Rogue River from Gold Beach, Oregon to Agness. It still does, but now takes passengers wanting to experience the journey in a bright red Jet Boat, travelling at 50 mph attached to three Chevrolet V8’s = 1 mile to a gallon.  with frequent spins, sharp turns and speedy acceleration. It was great fun getting so wet!  Pilot Tim Bruekner kept us well entertained on the boring straight bits. Mind you, the scenery, herons and eagles mostly kept our attention…no bears though!

We had a home fried chicken lunch in Agness (pop 85)  in the homely Lucas Lodge which Garrison Keeler could have been very droll about and didn’t have a road ‘til 1964. It now boasts an airstrip which looks remarkably like anyones front lawn…slightly bent, and the last place I’d want to put down my Cessna..

Our guided  trip round the Battery Point Lighthouse at Crescent City was Rosi’s first introduction to a Fourth Generation Fresnel lens  - what a beautiful piece of engineering.  Apart from rocky wrecks the city has recorded 34 Tsunamis in the past 33 years. The one in 1964 was the worst ever recorded along the West Coast and “took out 5 city blocks”…size of a couple of football pitches which are now a park.

Look for a Little Rosi

On through the World Heritage Site in the three California State Parks that  hold 95% of the old-growth Sequoia sempiverens (ever-living), the tallest trees in the world and only found on the West Coast. Only 5% of these wondrous trees remain – the rest were logged between 1850 and 1920 (approx 2 million acres). Coastal Redwoods can grow up to 390ft, with a girth of 40-50ft. They can weigh 500 tons and have no killer disease. Many are around 800 yrs old, with some reaching 2000 years. Walking through a forest of these giants is truly awesome. It feels quite mystical and humbling.

They grow in ‘families’, with the young saplings tapping into the root resource of the mature trees – sound familiar to parents?

We had a feeling we were in Ewok country when walking through the Redwood forests in Humboldt State Park– and yes, Spielberg turned it into the Forest Moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi.

From the sublime to the ridiculous - if you have 3min 52 seconds to spare you could watch our railway journey on the Oregon Scenic Railway…hmmm (yet to be uploaded 'cos we don't want to upset Starbucks by gobbling up their bandwidth...

Links to more photographs below in chronoogical order from the 6th....only if you are interested!
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https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6021648199590181073
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6021658213738718497
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/Oregon6thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCIX33JSf6L7S5wE
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024528019384816881
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024529964360057249
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024531093040341281