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.

Another quaint seaside town, its major export is cranberries, with numerous cranberry bogs north and south of town.  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.

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.

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.  

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.  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.   They 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.

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

where we also saw more seals, 

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.

 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.

Goodbye California, Hello Oregon!  After five wonderful months in California we have reached Oregon.  In those five months we didn’t begin to scratch the surface of all there is to see and do in California, so we will be back in the fall!

Brookings is a sweet little town of just under 7,000.  We entered the town on Memorial Day and Main Street was lined with American flags and POW flags.  We just love these patriotic small towns!  Due to its relatively mild climate and the fact that it gets more sun than any other Oregon coastal town because of its facing south position, Brookings is often referred to as “The Banana Belt of Oregon”.  Flowers bloom here all year and 90% of the country’s Easter lilies are grown here.  It is also home to many myrtle trees and coastal redwoods.  We found the townspeople here to be among the friendliest we have found in our travels.

While driving around the town we saw a sign for a historical marker.  It turns out that Brookings is the site of the only aerial attack on the U.S. mainland by the Japanese during World War 2.  Who knew!!! The amazing things we discover, and it didn’t take the quest for a geocache to find this one.   

We stayed at Harris Beach State Park which is a beautiful park with views overlooking the Pacific.  It is unusual to find state parks with full hookups, but Oregon seems to have many.  This is the first state park we have been to that has an old fashioned ice cream truck with the ringing bell that goes around each evening selling ice cream and bagged ice.  They also have a “Courtesy Guide” posted throughout the park.  The rangers have nightly programs on whales, seals and sea lions, medicinal plants, and tsunamis.  We learned that the Oregon coast is just beginning to get large amounts of debris from the 2011 earthquake in Japan.  They have set up large containers along some beaches and are asking people to pick up any debris they see and place it in the containers.  The ranger said that there was some damage in Brookings from the tsunamis in 2011, with nearby Crescent City, California receiving the most damage because the harbor there is more shallow.

We have been stunned by the unspoiled beauty of the Oregon coast.

One day we took a drive along the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor which parallels the Oregon Coast Trail, a 362 mile hiking trail along the entire coast of Oregon.  We stopped at several scenic overlooks, some of which took us off the highway and onto small roads.

We took several hiking trails to find geocaches and look at the shoreline, including Arch Rock

Arch Rock

Natural Bridges

and Natural Bridges.

On one geocache hike we saw a small waterfall far in the distance.  

As our week in Brookings was coming to an end we realized we had not spent enough time hiking in the state park where we were staying.  We hiked up a very steep hill where we found a geocache and magnificent views.

On our way back to our campsite we found a little squirrel scampering around with part of a paper plate in his mouth, stopping now and then to nibble the plate.  I am sure his digestive system is not going to like this lunch!

I hope to name a few facts about Oregon with each post.  Here are a few for this one:

1.  All Oregon gas stations are required to pump the gas for you.  There are no self service gas stations in Oregon.  (We might add that the gas is about fifty cents cheaper in Oregon than California so far!)

2.  Oregon contains more than 230 state parks and 13 national forests.

3.  Oregon has no sales tax.

4.  Oregon’s motto is “Oregon is for Dreamers”.

Just a Thought:  “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list”.