Oregon Cascades and coastline: part 3
McKenzie Pass to Sunset Bay State park near Coos Bay
We woke up to the sounds of rain on the skylights which then gave way to light drizzle for the rest of the morning.
Cup of coffee, feed and walk the dogs then we hit the road.
We headed towards McKenzie Bridge and the McKenzie river then on down to Eugene.
As we were driving along the McKenzie river we started looking for a spot to have a spot of breakfast and I spied a picnic area in the trees on a side road by the river
After eating I noticed a sign on a tree. High Crime Area, vehicles broken into leave no valuables. Area under video surveillance....nice
The drive down the along the river was quite nice
Our original plan was to hit Eugene and go south on I 5 to hwy 38 and west on the Umpqua hwy to 101 on the coast but as we reached 38 there was a message sign saying there was a fatal accident on a bridge and the road was closed so we spun a u turn and went back to Eugene then West on 126 to Florence and US 101. The section along the Suislaw River was really nice with some great bridges and lots of folks on small skiffs fishing for Salmon
I kind of lost track of which bridge went over which river as we headed down the coast but the views were great and the bridgework intriguing
Coos Bay Harbor, boats and mega spaces for RV's both hook ups and dry camping
After a long day we reached Sunset Bay State Park. For your fee you got Electric and Water, flat tarmac to park on and a Picnic table, You had to drive down the road to another park to use their dump station. I can't believe I did not take a picture of us and 100 of our closest strangers ;-) But the park did provide one of the nicer hikes of the trip.
We headed out of the campground following the White rabbit into the hole
and over to the beach
then we took the trail to the top of the cliffs
The views...just so awesome
Great Blue Heron
Cormorants
Kozmo has some strained tendons in his left front paw so I portaged hime over the rougher sections of trail
All in all it was a great 3 hour hike
After spending the night we headed south along the coast to California and Prairie creek Redwoods State Park where we would run into Bull Elk in full rut. More on that in part 4
We woke up to the sounds of rain on the skylights which then gave way to light drizzle for the rest of the morning.
Cup of coffee, feed and walk the dogs then we hit the road.
We headed towards McKenzie Bridge and the McKenzie river then on down to Eugene.
As we were driving along the McKenzie river we started looking for a spot to have a spot of breakfast and I spied a picnic area in the trees on a side road by the river
After eating I noticed a sign on a tree. High Crime Area, vehicles broken into leave no valuables. Area under video surveillance....nice
The drive down the along the river was quite nice
Our original plan was to hit Eugene and go south on I 5 to hwy 38 and west on the Umpqua hwy to 101 on the coast but as we reached 38 there was a message sign saying there was a fatal accident on a bridge and the road was closed so we spun a u turn and went back to Eugene then West on 126 to Florence and US 101. The section along the Suislaw River was really nice with some great bridges and lots of folks on small skiffs fishing for Salmon
I kind of lost track of which bridge went over which river as we headed down the coast but the views were great and the bridgework intriguing
Coos Bay Harbor, boats and mega spaces for RV's both hook ups and dry camping
After a long day we reached Sunset Bay State Park. For your fee you got Electric and Water, flat tarmac to park on and a Picnic table, You had to drive down the road to another park to use their dump station. I can't believe I did not take a picture of us and 100 of our closest strangers ;-) But the park did provide one of the nicer hikes of the trip.
We headed out of the campground following the White rabbit into the hole
and over to the beach
then we took the trail to the top of the cliffs
The views...just so awesome
Great Blue Heron
Cormorants
Kozmo has some strained tendons in his left front paw so I portaged hime over the rougher sections of trail
All in all it was a great 3 hour hike
After spending the night we headed south along the coast to California and Prairie creek Redwoods State Park where we would run into Bull Elk in full rut. More on that in part 4
