Friday March 6 On to Coos Bay

Our goal on this trip was to reach Coos Bay, Oregon, before heading back to San Francisco. Mission accomplished! Our day started by exploring Crescent City, CA. I like this town! Its best feature is a large,  modern, visitor friendly marina. One can walk around the docks, checking out the working fishing boats. (It seems pretty quiet, much be not in season?)  These docks are also a favorite hang out for hundreds, no thousands, of harbor seals. Its a treat to watch and listen to them barking!

Crescent City also has a lighthouse, not particularly noteworthy, and not accessible unless the tide is out.

We headed north on Rt 101, moving inland for a ways, before arriving in Brookings, OR. Nothing here. Then on up to Gold Beach with spectacular coastal views along the way. Nice lunch of Clam Chowder at The Porthole Cafe. Gold Beach is a commercial center with fishing and lumber, not so much tourism. Although we noted that their marina was virtually empty. We were told they no longer had a fish processing plant, so no more fishermen. The Rogue River enters the ocean here.

By now it is raining! We continued on up to Port Orford, another commercial town. The most interesting thing here was their non-marina. Since they don't have a protected harbor, instead they lift boats out of the water with large cranes and place them on dollies or wheeled cradles and bring them up on land. Very odd!

On the way out of Port Orford we stopped at the Cape Blanco lighthouse. We couldn't get very close but it had some great coastal views. The road turns inland until you arrive in Bandon.

We like Bandon a lot! One of the things that happens here, when it isn't raining and the tide is out, is a guy who draws big labyrinths in the sand. There are great ocean views with crashing waves and lots of vacation properties along the cliffs.

Another feature of the Bandon area is that a major industry here is Cranberries! You'll see bogs along the road and go by an Ocean Spray factory.

The drive from Bandon to Coos Bay is inland so not much to see. Coos Bay is a large city and we couldn't see much in the rain and the dark. Checked into a Best Western. Great dinner a block away at an authentic German restaurant called The Blue Heron.

So our northenmost goal has been achieved so tomorrow we head back to San Francisco. We'll head inland to pick up I-5 and take two days to get back to the airport for a late Sunday flight home. Weather report is calling for snow in the higher elevations tomorrow!

So, in conclusion the towns we like on this coastal trip were: Mendocino,  Crescent City and Bandon. Might be good spot for a week's vacation some summer!