NEWPORT, OR – We’re staying in this scenic Pacific port city for a few days, a bit less than halfway along our 670-mile journey up the West Coast along Highway 101 from Eureka, CA, to Port Angles, WA.
We left Eureka on Wednesday after a weeklong stay. Because of her English blood, Elizabeth has always preferred cooler and more humid weather, so I told her that Eureka might be just the place for her: The cooler Pacific currents cover the city in a “marine layer” of clouds much of the time and keep its daytime temperatures in the 50s and 60s most of the year, and so it was during our stay.
Eureka’s the largest city on the coast north of San Francisco with about 28,000 residents. Its heyday was the late 1800s when it boomed as a lumber and port city, and it’s still home to some lovely Victorian houses and downtown buildings. We drove past a couple of lumber yards in the region that were piled high with huge logs in various stages of processing.
We were less impressed with the large homeless population living along the waterfront and bike trails. It made us feel unsafe as we walked and biked in the city. As a society, we need to have compassion for people living on the margins, but there must be a better way to respond than to allow potentially unsafe and unsanitary encampments in public places. (I flagged the same issue in my post from Austin TX back in March, and I see a majority of the people of that city seem to agree, voting on May 1 by a 57 percent majority to ban camping in the downtown area.)
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From Eureka, we drove north to Port Orford, a small town about 60 miles from the border with California. From there we explored the coast in both directions, driving back south in the truck to explore the rugged coastline and sea stacks of Myers Creek Beach south of Gold Beach, and north to Bandon and the Face Rock Scenic Viewpoint.
Here are a few photos from our time along the south Oregon Coast last week: 1) At Myers Creek Beach south of Gold Beach; 2) ” Face Rock” near Bandon; 3) My perch after climbing through a passageway at the Face Rock viewpoint: 4) Elizabeth looking out at a small colony of barking male California sea lions at the Simpson Reef overlook south of Coos Bay; 5) A display at the former Coast Guard station that operated at Port Orford Heads from 1934-70 .
Dashboard:
Days on the road: 105;
Miles towing the RV: 5,094;
RV parks stayed at: 33;
National parks visited: 14.
The road ahead (Lord willing): The northern half of the Oregon Coast and over the Columbia River to Long Beach, WA.
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