On our seventh day exploring the Oregon Coast, we headed south from Coos Bay and visited Shore Acres Gardens, Cape Arago State Park, Bullards Beach State Park, the Face Rock viewpoint, the Devils Kitchen, Bandon State Park, Cape Blanco State Park, Sisters Rock, and Gold Beach, after which we headed inland up the Rogue River to find a campsite in the National Forest. It was quite the whirlwind tour!
Unlike campgrounds, the good thing about staying in a motel is that they often have a continental breakfast. We woke up early, as usual, and timed it so that we arrived just as the food was served. Then it was time to say goodbye to Coos Bay. We headed south on Highway 101, with freshly-showered bodies and clean clothing. It felt great! This was the other good thing about staying in a motel.
Our first stop of the day was at Shore Acres Gardens, which was part of Cape Arago State Park. These gardens used to be part of a mansion, owned by timber baron Louis J. Simpson, which was later donated to the state of Oregon to be used by the public. We certainly appreciated his altruism, and enjoyed seeing all of the diverse plants, plus the pond and buildings. Quite lovely.
After our tour of the gardens, we continued driving in the park. We checked out the misty morning views out over the rocky coastline. Cape Arago stuck out far enough into the Pacific Ocean that we were able to get views both north and south. Sadly, the misty conditions prevented more distant vistas, but that’s the way the weather often works during early morning on the coast of Oregon in the Summer months. Nonetheless, there is beauty to be found within the mist and fog.
We drove further south. The next stopping point was at Bullards Beach State Park, in order to visit the Coquille River Lighthouse. The weather was still foggy, and a chill breeze was blowing, so we were happy to get inside the lighthouse building. It was a small place, but had some interesting history. The nearby beach was packed with old driftwood logs. As a sailor, these logs almost seemed more scary to me than the fog. But we have GPS nowadays, unlike conditions during the days of lighthouses and foghorns. Too bad logs don’t show on radar.
Our next stop was a place called Face Rock. We really weren’t sure what to expect with a name like that, but we visited anyway. Naturally, the place was full of mist, with only the closest sea stack visible from the shore. It was breezy still, and we hoped that the sun would continue to burn off the fog. We waited patiently for quite some time, simply enjoying the salt air and reading the informative displays near the viewpoint. It took a while, but, eventually, Face Rock was exposed. And it actually looked like a face! We like finding objects like that in Nature. so this turned out to be a good stop after all.
There were yet more stops on our journey to the south. We made a quick hike to see the Devils Kitchen, then jumped a bit further to Cape Blanco, where there was yet another lighthouse. This coast must’ve been quite dangerous! It was still breezy and foggy, dank and misty, so we didn’t stay long out of the car.
By early afternoon, the fog had burned off. Once again, we got great views, both north and south along the coast. This next stop was at the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve, which extended along the coast just west of Highway 101.
We checked out Sisters Rocks, and marveled how uncanny it was that whenever there were three near-identical geographic features, they tended to be called Sisters. There are many examples, and this time it was large islands, or sea stacks, just offshore. We continued south and crossed the Rogue River, and visited Gold Beach, but we didn’t stay long.
We didn’t have much of a plan for where to spend the night, so we stopped and used Google to find us a USFS Campground. The only ones were inland from here, along the Rogue River. This wasn’t exactly part of our Oregon Coast desires, but it would have to do. We drove inland and found a campsite at the Lobster Creek Campground, then drove onward to check out some local forest trails. The first one was across the river, at the Myrtle Tree trail. They call them Myrtle Trees out here, but most folks know them as Laurels. Oh well. And I have to admit that it felt good to be back in the woods.
We then drove back across the bridge and up a long dirt forest road. The campground hosts told us about this spot, the Frances Shrader Old Growth Trail. We parked at the trailhead and immediately got lost. We hiked the wrong way! The actual path was across the road. After that, we followed the loop. There were a couple of creek crossings, and several large trees. We followed the printed guidebook and checked out the numbered locations on the path. It was a fun trail.
We arrived back in camp and I decided to head down the launch ramp toward the Rogue River. There turned out to be quite a bit of deep gravel down there, and my car almost got stuck! I kept my foot on the gas to keep it moving (the primary rule of Not Getting Stuck) and swung it around, back onto the concrete ramp. Whew! We decided to let more adventurous folks attempt this area. But first, we stopped for a photo. Note how I carefully cut off the concrete under the tires to make it appear that I was still on the deep gravel. Busted!
After that, we hung out in camp. We were in the farthest spot, right next to the ramp, so it was pretty quiet there. We ate dinner and headed off to bed. We checked out the map together. We only had a few more miles to go before we would be back in California! Our Oregon Coast adventure was almost complete. And it had been excellent. We certainly liked Oregon, both the mountains and the coast. Life was good again.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
<< Back to Day 6 Onward to Day 8 >> 
hikingtales.com 