Winchester Bay to Portland, OR 5 Oct 2013

 Just outside Reedsport, OR is an Elk Reserve.  It is rutting season.

 There are few roads that cross the coastal mountains of Oregon.  This is Highway 38.  It is good road, with only one narrow bridge and one tunnel.  It is a good one to take in an RV.  The marine layer was touching the trees today.

 We have few deciduous trees and our weather usually doesn't promote the extreme color of the forests east of here, but the color change still signals fall is coming.

 Mt. Hood just got a good snow last weekend, so it looks beautiful.  The bridge in the foreground will expand Portland's great commuter train system.

 Mt. St. Helens is wearing a new coat, too.  

 If you watch the TV show "Grimm", you will see the Markham Bridge in weekly scenes.

Traveling north on I-5 through Portland, we see the two spires of the Convention Center and the half-oval roof of the Blazer's arena, now called the Moda Center.  

Reedsport, Winchester Bay, & Coos Bay OR 3 Oct 2013

 Mike and Karen introduced us to this cute restaurant in Reedsport, OR, about five miles from our park.  Delicious breakfast !  Several dishes are based on local seafood fare.

This phone booth sits in the parking lot of MacDonald's in Reedsport.  We haven't seen one in a long time, especially one with a working phone.  

 Here we are in site 111 at Winchester Bay RV Resort.  We are facing the marina.  Behind us is the mouth of the Umpqua River with back-in sites, meant for 5th wheels.

The park is on a peninsula.  This is a view from our coach looking at the road in and out of the park.

We drove 25 miles south to Coos Bay to have dinner at a favorite place, called Benetti's.  They have been in business 30 years.  Our waiter has worked there for 22.  It is only open for dinner and has amazing Italian food.  It is such a surprise for this small town.  The portions are huge.  We both went home with doggy bags.  This fountain divides the entrance from the bar.

 There are donation jars all over town to collect money to restore this theater.

 Not all of downtown Coos Bay is this cute, but it looks like they are working at improving its tourist appeal.

 Looking through the railroad cars that probably brought these logs to the harbor, you can see logs being loaded onto an ocean going vessel for export.  They may be destined for a sawyer ship at sea that converts the logs into lumber for Asian markets.  Too few sawmills in the U.S. saw timber to metric dimensions.

North Bend is the twin city of Coos Bay.  We had never really noticed this sign because we had never come through here after dark.  

Brookings, OR to Winchester Bay, OR 2 Oct 2013

 These homes are north of the Beachfront RV Park, Brookings, OR near the mouth of the Chetco River.

 Another construction site along Hwy 101.  This was for bridge repair.  We felt sorry for the workers because the tarps over the new concrete had sitting water after the series of storms that came through over the weekend.

 There are are advantages of returning the way you came.  You get photos of the rocks from the other side.  Smile.

 And, we get photos of these houses that were hard to see coming south.

 Gold Beach, OR is a popular tourist destination.  

 These railroad cars are a big triumph for Coos Bay, OR.  When we were here in 2008, the tracks to the mainline in Eugene had been washed out.  There was little activity, and the town looked depressed.  The tracks were restored through a public-private partnership.  The town was much more vigorous this time.

 Coos Bay has been through some tough economic times, but seems to be returning to prosperity  These ships in port point to a dramatic increase in activity in the harbor.  There were also ships in port loading logs and wood chips.  Fresh tuna was being sold by one of the boats you see here.  

When Mike and Karen were here with us a week ago, we tried to eat in this cafe.  They are supposed to have the best fish tacos.  However, the wait for a table was too long, so we went elsewhere.  Next door is an excellent Italian Restaurant.

Red Crest, CA to Brookings, OR 1 Oct 2013

 This was the perfect time to be at the Ancient Redwoods RV Park near Red Crest, CA.  We had it almost to ourselves.  The 31 mile Avenue of the Giants is right through those trees.  The only frustration was the lack of cell phone service, even with a booster in the office.  Our personal mifi is dependent on cell phone service, so we had to use the park's wifi and we often got kicked off of that frequently.  The beauty of the area and peace and quiet made up for all of that.  We did discover that we could drive two miles into tiny Red Crest and get cell service.

 We had planned to stay on the Avenue of the Giants for three days, but record rains and wind in Oregon made us decide to stay two more days.  Here we are entering Hwy 101 as we leave.  It felt good to have cell service again.  We have become very spoiled by instant communication.  Love the marine layer in the trees.

 This car is towing a covered wheel chair on a cute, small trailer just big enough for the chair.  We have never seen anything like it before.  Highway 101 is quite schizophrenic.  It varies from wide four lane like this to the narrow two lane seen below. 

This scene shows the angry surf after a weekend of storms.  It reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle photo.

 There were four areas of construction along Hwy 101.  A couple of them were repairing areas where the road had slid off on the ocean side.

 Highway 101 goes through the Redwood National Park.  The trees along the highway are beautiful, but not as spectacular as those along the Avenue of the Giants and in the Rockefeller Forest. 

 Crescent City, CA appears to be fueled by tourism.

 Wish we could have seen this hauled into place.   

We arrived back at Beachfront RV Park in the marina at Brookings, OR to this view out our windshield.  Ahhh....

Highway One to the Ocean

 One beautiful day, we decided to head south from Red Crest and take California State Highway One to the Ocean. On the map it looked reasonably straight.  This was about as long a straight stretch as we found on this winding 18 mile road that climbed and climbed.  Traffic often came flying around the corners, making the drive a bit unnerving.  Once we got used to it, we were able to appreciate the beautiful forest.

 There was a rather large construction project along the way.  This photo is straight; the bridge was this slanted.  We felt sorry for the workers as they were miles from anywhere.  There were a couple of fifth-wheel trailers tucked away in the trees near the worksite. We suspect that was housing for the men. 

We were really glad that we were in the Jeep, not the coach, but there were others who decided to brave this road in a large vehicle.  Thankfully, they took a turn-out and we were able to pass them.

As expected, the Pacific Shore was beautiful, but Penny and I have become so inured to gorgeous seascapes like this that we were somewhat underwhelmed. Guilt, guilt....

The drive was, however, worth it for the scenery and interesting sidelights.  This house and derelict truck belonged on the set of a movie thriller.  We'll leave it up to you to dream up a plot. 

Ted, who took his bachelor's in forestry, found this little peckerwood sawmill interesting.  In the lower left is an old circular saw that was probably an integral part of the mill at one time.  You can see a log carriage, some sawn lumber, and a bandsaw in the shed in the background.  Outside are a forklift and a few logs waiting their turn in the mill.  It's little serendipitous things like this that are often the highlight of our trips.

The Giants 28 Sept 20013

 One of the first impressions you get when you drive down the Avenue of the Giants is how much light is intercepted by the huge crowns.  It was an extremely bright and sunshiny day, but only a few flecks of light made it to the ground.

 Next to our RV park was this big specimen known as "The Eternal Tree".  For many of these trees, this is not a misleading name.  Often, when large trees fall, they are replaced by smaller trees that sprout from the roots of their forerunner.  One could consider this as truly immortal protoplasm. This tree is approximately 950 years old, and has survived numerous disasters.  Repeated lightening strikes have removed nearly 50 feet of its once nearly 400 foot height.  The axe on the side marks the high water mark of the 1964 flood.  These trees are in the flood plain of the nearby Eel River.

The area between Ted's fingers mark over 100 years of growth.  This was one of the smaller logs in the area. 

 The hole left when this tree fell was at least 10 feet deep, even though there has obviously been a great deal of soil washed into it.

 This was one of the taller trees in the nearby Rockefeller Grove.  It is at least 120 feet to the first branch.

 Even the galls are impressive.  This one is, at least, four feet wide at its widest point and around 8 feet from top to bottom.

 It is impossible to give a true appreciation for the size of these marvelous organisms.  Ted's five foot ten inch height seems almost out of place here.

This snag and the red cast of the dead foliage lends a cathedral-like feeling to this forest.  When you hear people speak, it is always in hushed tones. This only adds to the worshipful ambiance.

 How long did this tree live before it fell?  How long ago was that?  Time seems immaterial.

We have both read Fall of the Giants, and, although it has nothing to do with the redwoods, somehow, that title seems to fit here.  The smallest of these logs was at least seven feet in diameter.  Perhaps this was a chain reaction in which one tree fell into others causing them to fall.  They were cut only to make a path through them.  Superlatives seem woefully inadequate.

 This little fellow seems to predict a long winter as he crawls between the red feather-like redwood foliage.  The passage of seasons matters more here than the passage of years.

As we were walking through the woods, we met an attractive young couple walking on the same path.   They were kind enough to allow us to take a photograph of their cute baby, who seemed perfectly content sitting in the lap of this giant.  There is only an age difference of  a millennium or two. 

 This gives some perspective, doesn't it? 

By the way, thank you again for letting us put your baby on our blog and especially for your service HOOAH!!