September 19, Day 32
We had a beautiful drive today. The road was winding a passed through some beautiful yet rugged mountain forests We stopped at a high viewpoint to see the Hecta Head Lighthouse from across the bay. The next more impressive stop was at Devils Churn which is a gorge that the sea has eroded through a vein of soft stone deep into the side of a mountain. The first viewpoint is a couple hundred feet above the gorge and provides a opportunity to watch and listen to the waves flow up the gorge creating muffled roars as they crash into the hollowed out areas under the harder overhanging rocks. We followed the trail down to a flat area about ten feet above sea level where we go a close-up view of waves rolling into the gorge. Most impressive! In the same general area is Cape Creek Bridge. It is poured concrete arch bridge of significant height. Traffic crosses the bridge and immediately enters a tunnel. This is very rugged topography to try to traverse with a road! Our next stop was at a commercial venture called Seal Cave. While I am not very fond of commercial operations, I must admit that they have done a very nice job of providing access while still protecting this huge seaside cave. They purport that this is the largest seal lion cave in the world and I can believe them, it is huge at 125 high and about an acre in area. We saw one sea lion sleeping on a huge rock in the middle of the pool.. There is a small colony of female seas lions who live here all year. The males migrate north in the winter and come back in the spring to mate (sound like some guys I know). When we arrived at Coos Bay we headed for the library to check email and update blogs. Our last stop before heading to the campground was to Wal-Mart for supplies. We are camping at Sunset Bay about three miles outside of a fishing village named Charleston.
September 20, Day 33
We drove to Gold Beach and have booked a day long jet boat ride up the Rogue River tomorrow. The short trip here was a mix of vistas. Some of the time we were deep into the wooded mountains and other times right on the coast. Before leaving the area of last night’s stay, we toured a fishing village named Charleston, just outside Coos Bay. They had a lot of sea food for sale in area stores or off he boats. One store cans its own product. They had smoked oysters and I thought of Dad, he loved them. The prices in the stores did not seem to be much of a bargain. They were, however, selling albatross (sp?) tuna off the boat (whole) for $2.00 a pound. A typical fish was 20 pounds. The guy we talked to indicated that he generally yields about 50% after cleaning. He must have had 100 pounds of steaks that he was going to be cooking for some group. He was throwing the scraps in the bay and the gulls and sea lions were right there eating every scrap. Tonight we are in a commercial RV park so we can be close to town for the 7:30 a.m. call for the boat ride.
