Enjoying Our Last Few Days in Brookings, OR

As I mentioned in my last post we were fortunate to have excellent weather during our week in Brookings, OR. Excellent to us being temps in the low to mid 60's and sunny most afternoons. Knowing that several days of wet and windy were on the way we got outside as much as possible.

One day we took a short drive into California and the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. We'd hiked a couple of short trails at the north end of this park in October 2013 and ever since I'd had my eye on the Boy Scout Tree trail, known for being a showcase of redwood scenery.

This 5.6 mile out and back trail is accessed from Howland Hill Rd, an amazing drive in itself as the road wound us intimately through the forest with enormous redwoods almost close enough to touch on both sides.

Even if you don't hike the drive on Howland Hill Rd is worth the trip!

I'll let the photos tell the tale of the Boy Scout Tree Trail...

Mid morning sunlight breaks through the dense forest canopy.

I am captivated by the variety of bark found on redwood trees.
Some are very smooth, some very rough, all beautiful.

By the end of the hike our necks were getting tired of looking, up, up, up!

Notice the bark on these redwoods is very light and smooth.

Hans blends in as he walks among giants.

These burls were easily 100 feet up and were even sporting some growth.

Backlit.

Boy Scout Tree, so named because it V's, looking like the boy scout sign...
couldn't get a good angle to show that though.
This beauty is 40 feet in diameter.

This bark almost looks like feathers!

Some sections of the trail have root hazards.

Large portions of the forest floor are covered in ferns...while one burl wears its own fern bouquet.

Hans helps a solo hiker get a tree hugging selfie.

Watch out for the low overpass covered in plants!

We have to duck to continue beyond this fallen giant.

One last walk on Lone Ranch Beach on a foggy morning. We found by walking south on the beach from the picnic area we could enjoy some very secluded beaches, often all by ourselves. There were tidepools to explore even at midtide and seals cavorted in the small bay near a rock where they'd gather to sun themselves.

The dots in the water on the right are seals that were very curious about us.
We spent a long time watching each other.

The seals swam along the shore watching us intently.

An old V6 engine was the only sign of man along the shore.

As our week drew to a close Hans watched the weather reports constantly, monitoring a big series of storms coming our way. This atmospheric river created by typhoon Songda was scheduled to hit the coast on Thursday (today) dumping many inches of rain and strong winds.

We decided to abandon our tentative plans to hop through tiny northern California towns visiting more redwoods and made a beeline for Fortuna, CA yesterday and a RV park with paved sites and the proximity of a large town (Eureka) while we wait out the next five or so days of rain.

As of this morning we have evaded the bulk of the first round of storms by being in Fortuna. We'll see what the next few days brings us. It's not so bad to hole up through a few days of rain considering we'll be in dry Southern California deserts soon!

Brookings, OR: Coastal Beauty and the Northernmost Redwoods

The combination of coast and redwood forest in Brookings, OR had us contemplating spending a month here earlier this year, but life had other things in mind for us and now we've managed to spend a week exploring all this small, most south western Oregon town has to offer.

We lucked out with the weather for this second week of October, no rain and mostly sunny for the entire week...and my foot is feeling better, the stars aligned for some hiking! Our first afternoon was a short walk at Chetco Point Park followed by some delicious beers at Chetco Brewing.

Hans is standing on the bridge on the ridge at Chetco Point.

Rugged Chetco Point.

Excellent blueberry ale and imperial coconut porter at Chetco Brewing!

Subtle sunset beauty through the clouds on our first night.

We took a good long hike on the Oregon Coast Trail; currently about 200 miles of beach and 155 miles of completed trails and road sections. When completed, the route will be about 400 miles long, stretching from the Columbia River to the California border.

We parked at Whaleshead Beach and hiked to Thomas Creek Bridge for a total of about six rugged miles (out and back). This portion of the Oregon Coast Trail lies entirely in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor and includes steep ups and downs through dense coastal forest with brief, peekaboo views of the coastline, and the fascinating combination of hillside sand dunes and jagged coastline of Indian Sands.

Coastal view from the Oregon Coast Trail.

An arch at Indian Sand Dunes.

Dramatic shoreline from Indian Sand Dunes.

These dunes do not go all the way to the water.

Peekaboo views along the heavily forested Oregon Coast Trail.

Oregon Coast Trail.

Lone Ranch Beach is another beautiful place to walk within the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor.

Fabulous driftwood at Lone Ranch State Beach.

Lone Ranch State Beach.

We're staying at Driftwood RV Park, a simple, clean full hookup park next to Brookings Harbor. We were surprised one afternoon to look out our door and see a cat sitting at the top of the stairs...Rosie was not impressed!

Rosie had an unexpected visitor!

We hiked through two unique types of forest beginning at Alfred A. Loeb State Park. The Riverview Trail is a pretty and easy 3/4 mile trail that goes through an Oregon myrtle forest along the Chetco River. The trail ends at North Bank Chetco Rd, which we crossed to hike the 1.2 mile Redwood Nature Loop. This trail winds up and down through the northernmost grove of redwood trees, ranging in age from 300 to 800 years old.

Giant old myrtle trees along the Chetco Riverview Trail at Alfred Loeb State Park.
A myrtle forest smells unique, the scent of fresh bay leaves permeates the forest.

Idyllic scene on Redwood Nature Trail #1111

Chetco River.

We took nightly strolls along the harbor across the street from our RV park.

A beautiful evening stroll along the harbor.

Encroaching fog creates an enchanting sunset.

Most days we were able to do a forest hike and a beach hike...the best of both worlds! There are only two old growth redwood groves in Oregon and the trees are smaller than those found just a few miles south in California, but we managed to hike through both of these groves.

A very narrow, windy gravel road took us to our second redwood hike: Oregon Redwoods Trails #1106/1107. Short but steep, the whole loop was less than two miles, but very pretty and even on a Sunday morning we practically had the place to ourselves.

Morning sun breaks through the fog on the narrow dirt road to Oregon Redwoods Trail #1106/1107

These are some of the northernmost redwoods in the country.

After the redwoods hike we took a coastal route home with a stop at McVay Rock State Recreation Site. Not only does this small park have beach access, but there's a dog park and brand new 9 hole disc golf course. It's a simple and fun disc golf course with mostly wide open grassy space plus some fabulous views.

A couple of the holes at McVay Rock have ocean views...gotta be careful when you throw!

There aren't too many hazards on this course, but this one was particularly dense!

The course is so new the tee pads have yet to be poured!
Hole 5 was unique...straight through dense shrubbery!

McVay Rock beach was different than most we'd visited so far, it was composed of tiny pebbles, and lots of driftwood, including an enormous tree stump.

McVay Rock beach held an enormous tree stump!

Otter lunch time!

Okay, that's enough for one post! Part 2 of our Brookings, OR stay coming soon...

Myrtle Creek and Cave Junction,OR

We spent a pleasant two nights in Myrtle Creek, OR allowing us to visit Chantal and James one last time in 2016. Millsite RV Park is a nice little city run RV park with easy access to interstate 5, and at $20/night for full hookups quite a bargain.

Fall colors at Millsite Park.

Clean and simple, Millsite Park is a nice place for a short stay.

An easy 86 mile drive got us to Mountain Man RV Park in Cave Junction, OR. Right off highway 199, Mountain Man has a pretty green setting on the Illinois River, full hookups with gravel roads and sites. Considering it was raining lightly during much of our two night stay, the highway noise was not an issue because we were usually inside the RV.

Kerby, OR is a small town just a few miles north of Cave Junction and is home to the unique It's a Burl Gallery. The large property is chock full of treehouses, galleries of burl furniture and carvings, and burls ready for transformation. Definitely worth a stop if passing through this area.

Hans looks down from one of several tree houses.

The main reason for our two night stay in Cave Junction was to visit Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. Discovered in 1874 by a hunter looking for his dog, the cave is about 250 million years old and is predominantly composed of marble.

We took the basic tour ($10 each) which took us through about half a mile of the cave and up and down 500 stairs. Though this was not the most interesting cave we've toured over the years, it was an enjoyable experience.

The drive to the Monument is long and winding into the heart of the Siskyiou Mountains and the grounds of the Preserve are stunning. We really enjoyed hiking a couple of the shorter trails and visiting the Chateau built in 1924. It would be fun to spend a couple of nights in the historic Chateau and hike some of the longer trails.

Hans stands next to a wall of the marble that makes up this cave.

The Chateau has 23 rooms and a coffee shop and restaurant as well as a comfortable lobby with big picture windows overlooking the forest.

The walls of the Chateau are covered in bark.

The CCC created beautiful stone walls and ponds during the 1930's.

The No Name Trail took us into the dripping forest and along a couple of streams.

Hans stops to enjoy the view on one of several lovely stone benches built by the CCC.

Many of the trees were covered in thick mosses.

Short spur trails brought us to lovely sights.

Enduring CCC charm along the trail.

Cave Junction turned out to be a wonderful little stop, despite the on and off rain for two days. It is fall after all and the rainy season has begun. We're off to the coast today, looking forward to beaches and redwoods for a change of scenery!