Daily Archives: June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014 Bandon, Oregon

We awoke to a cloudy, foggy morning which is not a welcome sight for a travel day, but after we traveled about ten miles farther north the fog dissipated, the sun came out and the sky began to turn a beautiful blue.  We continued up the Oregon coast on U.S. 101 also called  “The Pacific Coast Scenic Byway” to Bandon, population 3,100. IMG_0614

 

 

 

 

Another quaint seaside town, its major export is cranberries, with numerous cranberry bogs north and south of town. IMG_0615 IMG_0616 Bandon is known as the “Cranberry Capital of Oregon”.  There is an Ocean Spray plant in Bandon  that receives, cleans and ships from 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of cranberries per day during the peak of the harvest season which is September through November.   One interesting tidbit is that when some of the workers work in the bogs they walk on stilts to keep from crushing the berries.  The whole process of planting to harvesting is quite fascinating but too detailed to go into on the blog.

 

 

 

The beaches here are very popular with rockhounds since they are strewn with agates, jasper and other semiprecious stones.  In recent years shifting sands have revealed the remains of sunken ships.  More than 100 ships, including a 1918 steamship, have shipwrecked in this area.  In fact this area is known as the “Storm Watching Capital of the World” because the beaches with their seastacks, spiers and amazing rock formations become natural theaters with wind, sometimes at hurricane force speed, hurtling sprays of water upon the rocks and shore, sometimes 200 yards straight up.  We could see the power of the ocean with the huge amount of driftwood that lay on the beaches.  We read an article where a woman described how people go to the beach and build forts and structures out of the driftwood to be enjoyed during the spring, summer and fall, knowing it will all be destroyed by the winter storms.

While in Bandon we stayed at Bullards Beach State Park, another beautiful Oregon state park.  We only had three full days in Bandon so we scrambled to make good use of our time.  The first day we explored Bandon starting with the scenic Beach Loop Drive which took us to several beautiful vistas. IMG_0628 IMG_0636 IMG_0619 IMG_0634

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our favorite was Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint where you can see a woman’s face in the shape of the rock.  There is even a legend to go with Face Rock which was first told by Old Indian Mary, a member of the Coquille Native American tribe.  Legend has it that Seatka, an evil spirit of the ocean, caused all the storms that blew up and down the coast.  If Seatka could cause a person to gaze into his eyes, he would possess their soul forever.  Chief Siskiyou and his tribe came to the ocean to feast on the great quantities of seafood.  His daughter, Princess Ewauna, failed to heed her father’s warning to stay away from the sea.  Seatka captured her and carried her away.  She turned her face away so he would not possess her soul and she turned to rock, with her face forever turned northward toward the moon.  If you look closely at the picture you can see her face turned with her hair to the left and her nose and mouth visible to the right.

IMG_0625 IMG_0624

Speaking of Native American legends, we stopped by the Bandon Chamber of Commerce to get information to plan activities during our stay.  We mentioned reading that the town had almost been destroyed twice by fire, once in 1914 and 1936.  The second fire in 1936 devastated the town, destroying the entire business district and most of the residences.  They do not know how the fires started, but the surrounding shrubs, dead leaves and trees quickly fueled the fire.  The people headed to the nearby beaches to escape the fire, with some people burying themselves in the sand to escape the flames.  Legend has it when the white men took the land from the Native Americans, they put a curse on the town and that is why the town has almost been destroyed twice.

Bill enjoyed a great lunch of fish and chips at the Bandon Fish Market and we later stopped by a little mom and pop bakery for a delicious apple turnover and Bill bought a cinnamon bun for the next day’s breakfast.  The bakery is owned by a sweet elderly couple who still use the old fashioned cash registers and is a cash only business.  It is always nice to support the small businesses, but in Bandon everything is a small business!

We ended the day by driving down to the historic Coquille River Lighthouse located in the state park where we are camping.  The lighthouse was built by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1896 and operated until 1939.  Today it is open for tours.  IMG_0631

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed inland to run an errand.  It was our first chance to see the farmland with many cattle grazing in the fields.  The evidence of timber harvesting was evident in the mountains and on the land.  We saw a couple large lumber mills and at one point we came to a river where there were many logs floating in the water. IMG_0639 IMG_0640 Since we have been in Northern Calfornia and Oregon we have seen many logging trucks on CA 1 and U.S. 101.  They were especially unpleasant to pass on the narrow winding roads of CA 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon we headed to Cape Arago State Park where we stopped at a couple vistas.  At one pullout there was a volunteer with a telescope and binoculars where we could see many harbor seals on the rocks in the distance.  IMG_0643 IMG_0642 IMG_0641They were making quite a racket out there on the rocks as they jockeyed for space.

 

 

 

 

 

The volunteer also pointed out a small fishing boat from Japan that washed up on the beach a couple days ago and was identified as being from the 2011 Japanese tsumani.  It is hard to believe the boat has been adrift on the water for three years!  He said they went down and inspected the boat and determined it was from Japan and said they will probably leave the boat there due to the difficulty of getting it out of that location.  Bill used his camera to get a close up but in the other picture you can see how far down the cliff the boat is located in a small cove.

IMG_0645 IMG_0647

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last day in the area we drove south to Port Orford Heads State Park.  There is also a Lifeboat Station built by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1934 which is now a museum.  Orford is geographically the westernmost incorporated city in the contiguous United States.  There are a couple places in Washington state that may argue with that statement, but hey, that is what the tour book says and I guess it qualifies because it is an “incorporated city”!  Regardless, this area is beautiful beyond words.  We picked up a couple geocaches on some hikes along the coastline IMG_0654

 

 

 

 

 

where we also saw more seals, IMG_0655 IMG_0658

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and headed to Cape Blanco State Park where the Cape Blanco Lighthouse is said to be the most western point in Oregon.  This is still an operational lighthouse at since was built in 1870 it is the oldest operating lighthouse in Oregon.

IMG_0660 It is 256 feet high and can be seen for more than twenty miles out to sea.  The day was very windy and we felt as if the wind was going to blow us over the cliffside!  In fact our entire time on the Oregon coast has been cool and very windy.  We expected some rain which we have not had, but the wind and very cool temperatures have been a surprise.

 

 

 

Oregon Facts:

  • There are 16 known hot springs in Oregon
  • There are 11 lighthouses and one light ship along the Oregon coast.
  • Oregon is home to 9 federally recognized Native American tribes.

People sometimes ask us how we could leave behind our stick and brick house and live in an RV full time and travel the country as nomads; this quote we came across helps to explain:

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.