A FOREST/RIVER DRIVE, CRAZY NORWEGIAN & REDFISH.
Day 173 – The high today was 61 degrees and it was very windy. Wing Foilers came in to take advantage of the winds on Lake Floras. We are camping with an athletic bunch! (Wing Foiling is surfing with “a hand-held wing that enables the surfer to be up and foiling instantly. Foiling is holding the wing over your head. This allows them to cut upwind, cruise downwind, and ride swell without the aid of a windsurfing sail or kite”. From Columbia River Gorge Oregon tourist brochure.)
Today we took two drives east of Highway 101 into the woods. West of the 101 is the Ocean; East of the 101 you almost immediately enter the forest here, and there are several rivers that flow into the Ocean – like the Rogue River by Quosatana where we camped last, here there’s the Elk River and the Sixes River that have roads that follow the rivers into the forested hills. Both drives had campgrounds that we wanted to check out. Both drives were incredibly wild and beautiful.
On the way to the first drive this morning, before crossing the 101, we were driving by some pretty farmlands. The cows were very healthy and they had young calves. But the baby lambs stole our hearts. We think we should bring a baby lamb home for Luna to play with.
The first drive was through forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Sixes River was fairly narrow and it ran at the bottom of a deep gorge. At times we would be close to the edge of the road and were looking straight down through the woods to the River. The road was mostly well-maintained except in places where there had been a mudslide or rock slide. We had to go fairly slow. We located both BLM campgrounds but they were closed for the season.
We drove back to Port Orford once the road got worse and got gas in the Honda. We had lunch at The Crazy Norwegian’s Fish & Chips. We’d heard their food was awesome and every time we’ve driven by, they’ve been packed. They opened at noon and we got there a little after they opened. They were almost full and we got one of the last tables. I really wanted to try the fish and chips but didn’t want to spoil my dinner, so I got the Mini Fish ‘n Chips (½ order). It was good, not great. Rob got the Shrimp Tacos which was 2 shrimp tacos that were VERY good. The service was excellent.
We drove the second river route, and it was really nice. Managed by the forest service, it was a well-maintained, paved road winding through beautiful forest with the Elk River running along side it. This time no scary cliff driving. This river was wider and would’ve been absolutely gorgeous if we’d made this drive in about 2 months. The spring melt hasn’t released that much water yet, so it was more narrow than it will be then. Still, the water was crystal clear, a beautiful turquoise color, and you could see the rocks on the bottom. We drove quite a ways on this road, drove through two campgrounds, and turned around when the pavement stopped and the road turned to gravel.
On the way back to the campground, we drove some residential roads in Port Orford, a few roads along the Ocean, and a road that took us to a little park overlooking the Ocean and the Dock.
Then we went to the RV, visited with the cats, and left for dinner at Redfish. We were glad we’d made reservations. They were busy. It was still quite windy, the sun was out, and we got some pictures from the parking lot. For dinner, we had a partial repeat from last night – it was that good. Rob had the Porter to drink; I had a Bloody Mary. We again got the Crab Rangoon appetizer. We split the excellent and very large Redfish Caesar Salad. Then we split the pasta dish Rob had last night – the smoked salmon, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, over house-made pasta with pesto. Since we were smarter tonight, we had room to split a dessert – the Lemon Curd Tart topped with sliced strawberries. Everything was excellent.
Tomorrow we will be driving to our next destination and it will all be new to us from Coos Bay north. We didn’t want to leave here but tomorrow night the winds will be quite high, so we wanted to be settled in further north.
For more detailed information about Boice Cope County Park, click here.