The (rugged & random) Oregon Coast

We spent the second half of Labor Day weekend exploring the (southern) Oregon Coast, which was spectacular! If you are ever in Oregon or in northern California, you should (besides visiting us) drive this stretch of Highway 101 (Pacific Coast Scenic Byway). While I had ventured to the northern seaside towns of Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Tillamook when I did a ER rotation at OHSU while in medical school, I had never been to the southern part of the 101.

NWcoast.com

We started in Coos Bay, which is the southern entrance to the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area (which stretches for 40+ miles along the coast north to Florence).

Kieu and Jimmy, friends from Orange County, were actually also in Oregon for the weekend, and we met up on Sunday to explore the dunes in an ATV. Although neither K nor I have ever ridden a quad/ATV, to accommodate the four of us (and Pep), we instead rented a 4-seater.

 

 (I love how Kelvin is the only one in this picture with a helmet on!)

   

 

Although we got stuck going up our first hill (we were too slow, apparently!), refractory to digging out sand, and had to be rescued by one of the tour company employees, it was pretty smooth sailing after that point (from my standpoint in the rear; Kelvin said that driving was quite nerve-wracking and gave him his dose of adrenaline for the day!).

 

 

Kieu held Pepper while I helped with the digging efforts.

The scenery was quite spectacular! 

 (Unstuck! Fun times!)

After a delicious Thai food lunch near the Coos Bay boardwalk, we went our separate ways (Kieu and Jimmy back to Portland, and we headed south down the coast).

We stopped in Bandon ("Bandon by the Sea"), which had a cute Old Town and pier area.

Bandon is known for its cranberry bogs, and we had a great time sampling its goodies at the downtown store Cranberry Sweets and More. Unfortunately, the Cheese Factory had closed; otherwise, I would have hit that up as well (while K [cheese-hater] watched Pepper).

Bandon also had a scenic Beach Loop Drive, where we saw such seastacks as this "Face Rock."

South of Bandon, we visited one of our "random" sights, America's (apparently) largest wild animal petting park.

We had a chance to pet some exotic creatures-- a bear cub here...

... a red fox there....

... and an (albino?) ferret. 

 

(We chose not to battle the kiddos to stand in line to pet the cougar cub although I was reeeeeallly tempted).

I enjoyed the free-roaming deer, goats, sheep, and llamas...

... although here is Kelvin's "not impressed" expression, standing by a (goat and) llama (I think he was just too scared to get closer, as they do spit!).

A lotta llamas... (Llama alley)

They even had some big animals-- a couple of tigers, panthers, and a lion (although I always feel really bad seeing big cats in cages).

Wallabies!

 When we finished scraping dung off our shoes, we headed south towards Port Orford, where we stopped by Cape Blanco Lighthouse S.P, located apparently at the westernpoint point of the continental U.S.

In Port Orford proper, we had more great coastal views from the Port Orford Heads State Park.

We settled into our motel (Sea Crest), which was really cozy, with a view of the ocean. It called itself a "B &B without the B [breakfast]," although it did offer in-room coffee. The flat screen TV, and DirectTV with the Tennis Channel, was an added luxury (and dangerous, with the U.S. Open on!).

On Monday morning, we explored more of Port Orford, at Battle Rock City Park.

Pepper and Kelvin gazed at the ocean

Pepper loved running along the beach!

Little Pep (can you spot her?), Big Rock

We stopped by an awesome bookstore, Gold Beach Books, in Gold Beach (another cute OR town), for scones and browsing, and then continued south.

The next "random" sight on the 101 was the Prehistoric Gardens (a strangely-placed attraction displaying life-sized dinosaur figurines). Since you could actually see parts of the "park" from the highway (such as this ?brachiocephalosaurus neck/head), we didn't pay the entrance fee to actually enter the ~rainforest.

Just off the highway were lots of viewpoints within Samuel Boardman State Park such as these:

Arch Rock

Natural Bridge

We ate lunch by the boardwalk in Brookings, Oregon.

And then we stopped at one last "random" roadside attraction (which is actually just over the state border in California) -- the "Ship Ashore," a ship-turned-giftshop/museum. Unfortunately, it was closed on Labor Day, but we still got some good snapshots of the exterior.

As you can see, we had glorious weather (a bit warmer than in Arcata, and much sunnier!).
We loved the Oregon Coast and will be back!

Devil's Punchbowl

Despite fighting a cold, I convinced Kelvin that on Saturday, we wanted to climb Devil's Punchbowl, a 10-mile roundtrip hike in the Siskiyou Wilderness, just south of the Oregon border (we were headed to the Oregon Coast anyway [post forthcoming], so it was "on the way").

It was definitely devilish. And we unintentionally made it about a 12-mile hike.

We started at Doe Flat, fittingly named with a doe that greeted us as we parked.

 

The first three and a half miles was actually very easy (with a slight downgrade, which made our exhausted return trip the more devilish). We all enjoyed this hiking.

nice berries along the way

After about an hour and a half of walking, we noticed that we were starting to go downhill fairly steeply (and were hearing water, indicating an unanticipated creek), whereas my trail guide had noted that, by about 3.5 miles, we should have hit the spur to hit the steep switchbacks up to the top of the Punchbowl. We had the good sense to turn around, where (about a mile back up the trail) we noticed that we obviously missed the wooden sign indicating the right path.

 

Duh. Despite being set back about an hour and slightly tiring legs, Kelvin humored me and agreed to make a run for the top (about another mile and a half).

We had to carry Pep up the first mile of switchbacks who, although was a real trooper, doesn't do really well when it gets steep.

We climbed through some more open parts and rocks which really slowed us down and had us again questioning the route, but luckily had some awesome cairns to mark our path:

 I don't know if it's clear from this picture, but this is a cairn made by an arch of rocks!

 

Before the top, we hit Lower Lake

 

And then, we kept climbing.....

 

 

The view from the top (around 4800 ft) with the "bowl" of alpine lake surrounded by granite was quite stunning.

 

 

(unfortunately, I didn't notice that there was this much glare when we took the pictures...)

... so I stole this more representative pic from summitpost.org

(timer shots)

 

 

 

 

 

Pep enjoyed cooling off in the shade

From the top (after about a 20 min rest), it took us almost 3 more hours to get back to our car, with our tired legs (and slight upgrade on the way back).  I was really dragging, but Kelvin didn't even complain. What a great husband. We luckily had plenty of food and water and not-too-hot temps, but I definitely learned to watch closely for signs so as to not extend your already-devilish hike to an even longer, more devilish one :).