The Oregon Coast

Who doesn’t love the Oregon Coast?

Every time I visit the Oregon coast I’m always in awe.  And I never seem to remember in between visits how beautiful it is and how much I enjoy it.

Friends of mine live on the Oregon coast near Rockaway Beach just south of the Nehalem River, a particularly gorgeous section of the Oregon coast.  I took the big white truck (without the trailer) down to visit these friends of mine at the end of August, 2017.  [A website about windsurfing the area is here.  A website about fishing the Nehalem is here.]

My friends don’t live right on the beach, but they are close.  Their home is an easy three or four block walk directly from the house to the beach.  However, the usual walk they take (and the one we took while I was there) is longer than just that three or four blocks, but more than worth the extra time and effort.

We walked through a quiet residential area with older weekend beach cabins and newer full-time homes (sample right snipped off the internet), then we walked about a 1/4 mile south to a nearby park, and then we had easy access to the beach.  And then it was a beautiful beach walk north for a mile or so, then a scramble up onto the breakwater that borders the southern edge of the outflow of the Nehalem River.  We scrambled along on top of the large rocky rip-rap breakwater (it was easier than it sounds) until we clambered down off the breakwater further inland and then followed some paths back into and through a large grove of trees (photo left also taken off the internet), finally arriving back at my friends’ home.

 

The beach and the Pacific Ocean.

In the photo above, the breakwater along the southern side of the entrance to the Nehalem River can be seen in the distance.  I imagine this walk would be spectacular during a storm!

After a four-day visit with my friends, on my way home I headed north along the coast rather than inland to the freeway.  Who would choose the freeway over this?!  I didn’t get far.  The parking lot in the photo above was Hug Point State Park and was only about a half hour drive north of my friends’ home.  I just couldn’t resist one last look at the ocean and one last walk on the beach.  (The big white truck is on the right above.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan is out there … clear across the Pacific Ocean, about 4,500 miles by the polar route.  The northern tip of Japan is pretty much directly in line with where that fisher-person is fishing in the photos here, same latitude.

 

 

 

After a brief beach walk, I trekked back up to the truck ready to hit the road for home, but stopped to take a few photos of the trees and the ferns and other greenery along the side of the parking lot.

 

Lots of trees here had these burls on them.  A friend of mine tells me burls are created by trees in response to an injury of some sort, whether chemical or insects or damage from high winds (or damage by people) and that the burls are often used by people to create bowls or spoons or wooden boxes or other interesting wood carvings, even furniture if the burls are big enough.  I’ve seen those types of things for sale in stores but don’t remember ever seeing a burl on a tree before.  There’s so much to see in the world!

 

This burl looked like it was trying to grow new trees.

This tree’s burls made it look like the face of a somewhat bewildered fellow.

And then I jumped into my truck and headed home.

There are an almost uncountable number of places to RV on the Oregon coast, especially if you are boondocking and don’t need an electrical hookup.  Oregon has a liberal boondocking policy … you can stay along Highway 101 (along the Pacific Ocean coast) for free up to 12 hours overnight at any roadside turnout not otherwise posted as “no overnight parking”.  An early spring drive down Highway 101 (once I get more electricity on board my trailer) is now on my list!

On another subject entirely, I want to add a personal note of THANK YOU to everyone who reads this blog and to everyone who writes a comment, whether you are signed up for automatic email notices or not (you can sign up in the upper right hand corner of this webpage, if you would like to).  I don’t check statistics every day, but I do check every once in a while.  I’m using the free WordPress application for this blog so I don’t get detailed statistics, but I can see generally the total number of viewers and which countries are included in that number of viewers.  A few days ago some folks from Finland started reading the blog … hei!  I love that this blog is being read in several different countries.  Please feel free to share it with others who might enjoy it.  Safe travels, everyone. 🙂