Day 44 – Rob was up at 7:15; me at 8:15 a.m. It was sunny and 55 degrees. Another beautiful day. The campsite shuffle has calmed down around us because the people that’ve moved into the ocean-view sites got here a few days ago during the storms and have stayed. Campers still drive by to check out potential sites at the inner loops, but for the most part this area has avoided much of the changing of the guard. People are out-and-about more, certainly with the improved weather, windows & doors are open, and people ride by on bikes, take walks, and just generally make noise, but it’s a good place mostly. Definitely not private & quiet like our previous campground, Quosatana, but hey, you pay a price for the view.
We left for a day of exploring the coastline and areas between Gold Beach & Brookings. The scenery was amazing with many tall sea stacks. Highway 101 in this section is bordered by tall trees. You are able to glimpse the ocean & rocks below, then you turn a corner on the winding road & there’s this incredible view between the trees. There are many turnouts where you can stop. The Oregon Coast Trail is a hiking trail that runs up the entire Oregon coast. Very nice! This particular section has been set aside as the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor. More than the turnouts, they have scenic viewpoints where you can drive closer to the cliff to easily see below, and some of them have parking areas, picnic tables, and trails for reaching the beach; these trails join up with the Oregon Coast Trail. One of these scenic viewpoints is called Whaleshead Beach, a gorgeous beach with the waves crashing in over the smaller rocks, and larger sea stacks (one of them looks just like a whales head when it is spy-hopping head-first out of the water). The Arch Rock viewpoint has, guess what, an Arched Rock – also gorgeous with a nice trail that runs along the cliff. The Natural Bridges scenic viewpoint has a very short hike to a bridge which overlooks several arched rocks that are connected by a “natural bridge”. This is a wild & gorgeous area with lots of small birds flying to and fro. Pictures below. We also took a winding & narrow, at times one-lane road, around the Pistol River area with tall cliffs bordering one side of the road and a cliff going down to the River on the other side. Really pretty, but because of the recent rains, there were some mudslides so we eventually turned around and went back the way we came.
We got back to the RV close to 3 p.m. & sat outside to read our books. I swear, the girls didn’t move the whole time we were gone. Lazy cats. We went out to dinner for fresh fish, eating at the Brookings marina area at a small, unobstrusive restaurant called, “Catalyst”. It’s named after the fishing boat which catches the fish daily. Today’s fresh fish were tuna and ling cod. The cod was melt-in-your-mouth fresh – we split fish & chips and fish tacos. Quite good. Back to the RV & the girls were finally stirring. After their inactive day, we expect lots of running around tonight. Goody. LOL.