The Oregon Coast

After leaving Bend, we headed west for our first view of the Oregon Coast. The drive there looked a lot like much of the interior west. But, as we approached the coast, we began a drive through the epitome of what you expect Oregon to be. Beautiful evergreens lining both sides of the road as you drove up and down hills less than a mile from the Pacific. We pulled into Bandon, a small town on the South Coast. We passed an RV park coming into town that was so crowded and with such limited space that it looked like the RV's couldn't open their slides. Gratefully, it wasn't our park. We drove through town and out the other side for several miles into the countryside and arrived at a small park less than a mile from the ocean. We could hear the Pacific throughout the night. Highway 101 is the main highway but there are terrific two lanes along the water. We drove the back road right along the ocean. We made a stop along the way because it was too beautiful to pass up. (even on a cloudy day)

Bandon had a great farmer's market and the walk along the water was great. Tony's crab shack, literally a world famous joint with fantastic crab. Order at the counter, wait for the yell and eat from a plastic basket. But boy is it worth it!!

Another stop along the ocean.

The next stop was the Coquille River Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1896. The geographic location of Bandon at the mouth of the Coquille River made it the hub for all river transportation. Dozens of boats would be in the harbor at a time, loading and unloading freight and lumber. By 1939 however, technical navigational apparatus was commonplace and marine beacons, foghorns, and lightkeepers became obsolete. The Coast Guard extinguished the light at the Coguille River Lighthouse and replaced it with an un-watched automated beacon at the end of the south jetty. It is was the end of an era: the light was removed from the tower and the lighthouse was abandoned. Starting in 1979 the lighthouse was restored with a solar-powered light installed. And, today volunteers and docents give tours and history lessons. 

Last stop was Shore Island State Park in Charleston, a small fishing town that had all of four restaurants that were also fish stores. The fish basket had tile fish not some unknown white thing. Caught that morning, it couldn't have been better. And, there in the cold case were the best looking Dungeness Crabs you could imagine. Guess what we had for dinner? Someone once described eating crabs as dinner and a show. It was ......

Five miles along the road was Shore Acres State Park. The park is a beautiful botanical garden unique to the salt air of the coast. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful gardens we have seen across the country. 

On the way back we stopped at a spot high atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean where we saw a seal and sea lion Club Med. Thousands of seals and sea lions were in the water as far as we could see. They looked like tiny dots but each dot was the head of a seal. (By the way, the sea lions had all the small islands-sound familiar?) 

An incredible place to visit.

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