Day 13: Southern Oregon Coast
I woke up this mornig around 5:00 and drove back toward the
old part of town as that the fjistherman were getting to go out this morning.
I then wwent back to the main strip and went to eat breakfast at teh Florence
Cafe at 5:30. The food was good as I had eggs hashbrowns,& ham. The atmosphere
this early i the morning was mainly fisherman or locals as everybody knew each
other and the waitress would greet everyone wallking inn the door by first name.
I decided to go inland for a little while as I wanted to go back to Sea
Lion Caves after 8:00. i tooke a small county road along the Siuslaw River
this monring and there are many nicer houses wiht large lot sizes as you get
away form the coast. 
The
fog lifted about 10 miles away also and it was blue sky. The first stop was
Mapleton around 7:00 and then Swisshome as both towns are samll and along the
river. It looks like farming and loggin are the main industries and there is
also a rock query in Swisshome.. I wanted to stay longer here but I knew that
I had to get going so I would start back. I took a shortcut along Indian Creek
Raod as this was nice back country where that has been logging in some areas
along the hills. It was a quiet drive this morning with the sun out as i would
go up a grave road over a hill and then come down to apved road and eventuallly
on to state highway57. I got back to Florence around 9:00 and went to the Sea
LionCaves only to find out that the Sea Lions wer out in the water and not on
the rocks this morning. You can still pay the $7 to see the caves but I figured
I would be back again some day. Between 100-200 Sea Lions live here as they
also migrate up to alaska in the winter and are only here from Sprng to late
Fall. The caves wer discovered in 1880
With it now 9:30 I left here going south and would now enter Oregon Dunes Recreation Area. I was back in the fog again as about five miles from the ocear there is overcast today. The dunes is a loarge strip of sand inlet from the beach that goes from Florence to North Bend. There are many places to camp, ride off-raod vehicles, hike , ride horses , picnic or put boat in many lakes in the vicinity. Honeymoon Park is the closest large campsight near Florence with everthing available including two lakes. For off-raod vehicles you can rent a vehicle for the day or have someone give you a ride from many of the rental places along the beach. This was a great idea to make the sand dunes a National Park in 1972 . What has to constantly be worked out is the balance of off-raod vehicles to pedestrians for the right to the dunes. There is the peace and quiet of walking the dunes with noone around, while you also have the excitement of the off-road vehicles that can be an exhausting fun day. The olny negative thing is that mosto fhte campsights are two big but that is my erson problem. I stopped at a couple places to walk the dunes and it looks like they could go on forever. It's always much harde to walk back to , especially if you have to go uphill.
It's still foggy this morning and I didn't see much for the
next hour as I drove along the coast. I drove past Dune City and Gardner and
drove past the Umpqua River to come into the town of Reedsport. 
This
is a middle size town for the coast as I stopped at the travel centre for dunes
and picked u pamphlets for camping and riding areas. A couple miles downis the
Uuppqua Lighthouse State park with Lake Marie as there are trails, coampgrounds
and picnic areas here to releax in. Tugman State park is six miles south of
Reedsport and it has 115 camp sights and was also filled as it has Ell Lake
to launch boats in. I drove past Lakeside and the next town I stopped at was
North 'Bend/Coos Bay where there is a large lumber industry. There wer shipping
logs on a large barge that was probably going to Japanas this. There are also
many processing plants for seafood around here. Both towns are only separated
by about a mile and both on the water.. Coos Bay had both a old and new part
of as they have a new boardwalk along the Coos River. There was a new boat ride
that was going to sail the river and inlet for 90 minutes today for only $12.
This was the first timeit woudl be sailing as there were peole walking by curiour
to see what the new sight was in town. There was also a road that lead to Charlston
and three stat parks along the ocean but it was still foggy and not able to
see anything as I drove out that way. I will come back here again as I didn't
have enough time to explore the towns.
I
drove south until reaching Bandon which is a small community that is beginning
to grow as new houses are being built right next to the water. the attraction
is the rock formations on the sandy beach. This town is also know for its fishing
as the Coquille River rans into the ocean pst town. it is getting hard to remember
the differences form all of the views as pepole down here have totake this area
for granted..
I There are just to many places to see and not enought timein a day to visit
all of them. I;m not used to getting out of my vehicle every five minutes to
look at another sight, but that is houw nice the scenary alon the coast is in
Oregon. There is also a small lighthouse that sits on rocks right out on the
Coquille River. Next stop is Cape Blanco State Parkwhere are campsites, a lighthouse
and also the Hughes house that was built in 1898 that is available for viewing.
I left here and went into Port Orford which was a small town. I drove uiphill
to Paradise Point wherr it had a nice walkway to extending over a cliff to look
both north and south . 
came back near town and walked out onto thebeach at Port Orford to took a picture
of the rock formations looking south as it made a good scenic picture. It was
getting warmer out and as I was driving over a cliff looking at the ocean, I
for a minute thought i was down in Big Sur in California. Oregon has its own
unique natural beauty with the rock formations and so many different beaches
to explore.
A couple miles before reaching Gold Beach there was a group of peole who were
wind surfing. It looks like alot of fun but is very demanding and need to be
in great shape to wind surf. I watched for about thirty minutes and continurd
to Gold Beach. This is another town that is populear for its fishing and back
in the 1850's was when gold was found here and further up the Rogue River. I
continue past Gold Beach and would stop at Myers Creek to take pictures of more
rock formations. 
Boardman
Stat Park is the next place wher there is great national formations of rock.
The park is name after the Sam Boardman who was in charge of the Oregon Stat
Parks when they formed the ocean beches as state parks to be available for everybody.
At one point ther eis a pullout to walt to a memorial where they acknowledg
Sam Boradman for his worke and a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.
I continue on and stop at Arch rock where there is a rock in the middle of the
water the archs over and ahs a hole in the middle of it. 
It
is explained the a ceingling collapsed from a cave at some time ago but this
one is hard to believe. I also stop at Natural Bridges where has also had the
ceiling collapse on two caves and what is left is the archectiture of like two
door ways the the wall of a rock. It was overcast when I left here and I would
now drive down to Brookings as it's about 7:00. Brookings has a nice Harris
Beach Stat Park that is just north of town and access to the sandy beach with
picnic tables. There is also a large harbor here with charter boats available
.
I continued south and would drive thru Redwood Campground where you can underneath the forest of thelarge trees and walk the trails withen the park. I continued south into california and it took some disclipline not to continuee south when I sa the sign to San Francisco. I lived in the Bay area before and would move there again if not for the price of houseing. But I drove down to Carson City and then turned north on 199 and went thru the Redwood National Park. It's amazing how large these trees ae. Iget out for a walk in the forest as it si very quiet and I have never seen trees so big before and I do live in Washington. I continued on and passed the border again into Oregon as I would get inito Cave Junction around 9:00. I found a place to stay at the Junction Inn for $44 and went to eat at Carlo's for Mexican food. Don't ever go there as the service was very slow and the food was so-so. And this is with only one other table being waited on. I quickly ate my food and left. I went to bed around 10:00 and it sure did feel good to sleep in a hotel. I would go to the Oregon Caves tomorrow
Drove 350 miles today 3250 total in eight days.