The Oregon Coast- Coos Bay and Bandon

First things first – Happy Birthday Mom!  Yes, today is Patsy’s birthday – As our gift to her, we won’t mention which one.

Mike said our drive on Wednesday to the Oregon coast and the Coos Bay area was shorter than our day trip to Crater Lake!

We are thankful to the people who recommended Coos Bay to us.  I said in a previous post that the Northern California coast has a beauty all its own.  Well, ditto for the Oregon coast.  On one stretch of road on Thursday I think I took 10 pictures because after I got what I thought was a great shot, we would go a half a mile and it would get even better.  Fortunately, it is not the really busy season yet, and it is the middle of the week so when I would say to Mike, “Stop!  I want to get a picture of this” he was usually able to without causing an accident. (I only say this when we are driving in the car, not the motorhome!)

After we got set up at a campground in Lakeside on Wednesday, we drove around to scope out the area.  Heading south, Highway 101 runs through the small towns of North Bend, Coos Bay and Bandon.  Off of 101 was Charleston, where it was obvious the main industry was fishing.  Crabs, clams, tuna and salmon are abundant here.  Notice the picture of a pile of clamshells.  There were at least 6 of these huge piles of discarded shells.   Mike said it best – “It looks like they shuck and chuck!” We should have found someone to ask what in the world they do with these piles. 

We walked along the waterfront in Bandon, watching people on a pier pulling up crab rings and commercial fishing boats pulling in to dock. It was a very familiar, nautical feeling as we have been on boat trips along the Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada coasts. Our souvenir from here is a can of locally caught and canned tuna.

Thursday’s weather was cloudy and cool.  It had rained most of the night, which put the kibosh on my wanting to walk (or run!) in the sand dunes just to say I have done that on Michigan dunes and Oregon dunes.  Mike just shakes his head at these schemes of mine.

We traveled some different roads on Thursday that took us into several local state parks and recreation areas.  We walked on the beach and watched the surf pound against the rocks that jut out of the water.

One viewpoint had seals and sea lions.  The cool part was, when we got out of the car, we heard them before we saw them.  We learned our lesson about not having the binoculars in the car back in Eureka when the surprise whale watching opportunity came up so we had them for some close-up looks.  Most of the seals/sea lions seemed to just lie there and sleep, but a few waddled around for us.

We saw lots of places that advertised Myrtlewood crafts.   We had no idea what that was, so we stopped at a small Myrtlewood shop.   The front was a gift shop of everything Myrtlewood and the nice lady took us to the workshop in the back.  (when you say you are from Michigan and have never seen Myrtlewood, it opens a lot of doors – literally, in this case!)  And our lesson for today was that Myrtlewood trees only grow on the coast of southern Oregon and northern California.  The wood is 28% harder than oak.  The craftsmen’s finished products look stained, but they aren’t.  The wood takes on the color of the minerals in the soil so some pieces are a darker brown, and some are more reddish.  For my souvenir,  I bought a wooded spoon for our motorhome.

The one attraction we did know of in this area was Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.  The non-golfers reading this have probably never heard of Bandon Dunes.  It doesn’t have the name recognition with the general public as say, Pebble Beach, or Augusta National.  But running along the coast, looking like the links courses in Ireland or Scotland, the 5 courses on the Bandon Dunes property are on every golfer’s bucket list. 

We set out thinking we would have lunch here, like we did at Pebble Beach, to see the grounds. Pebble Beach was smack in the middle of the 17-Mile Drive along the Monterey coast so any Tom, Dick, or Harry could stop to walk around, go into the golf shop, or have lunch.  And many of them did.  Bandon Dunes is off the main road and really is a destination.  You’d have to know you are going there as their non-descript sign on Highway 101 gives no clue to the unknowing that the often rated #1 public course in America is waiting if you turn west.  We did know where we were going, but once we saw that everyone was there for GOLF, we were uncomfortable being there as tourists in our jeans (even though their restaurants are open to the public) and decided against  lunch.  Instead we drove into Bandon and had delicious chowder and fish and chips at a small restaurant on the waterfront.

The logging industry is alive and well in coastal Oregon.  We saw stacks and stacks and stacks of logs piled up on the bay front in North Bend, waiting to be loaded onto ships.  And passing big-rig trucks hauling the logs is a common sight on the roadways.

Friday finds us Trailblazing on to Portland for 3 nights.  (only the NBA fans are going to get that play on words) So far, when we have driven on the Pacific Coast Highway, we have done so in the car.  It is easier to stop at viewpoints and the curvy, twisting roads are easier in the car.  But we are taking the coast road to Portland in the motorhome.  If the shoreline is as spectacular as we have seen so far, I’ll be taking pictures through the windshield of the RV.  And I’ll probably just post the pictures and say, “Here.  See for yourself.  I have run out of words to describe the beauty.”

Pictures today are: entering downtown Bandon;  a fish sculpture made from the trash that washes up on the shore.  The locals collect it and take it to an art studio where the students create these; the Bandon lighthouse; Oregon Dunes area; a “real” fisherman’s wharf in Charleston; the pile of clam shells; coastal views; Ok – I just had to include this picture because it cracked me up.  The restroom at the beach in the prior picture has locks on its toilet paper holders.  Obviously stealing toilet paper is a big problem here!; Mike searching the beach for a rock for me; more coastal views; the 11^th hole at the Pacific Dunes course at Bandon Dunes; logs waiting to be loaded on the ship that is barely visible above the pile; and one last coastal view.