Exploring the Southern Oregon Coast

For Thanksgiving, The Goddess and I decided to pack up our little trailer and explore the Southern Oregon Coast. The weather forecast was bleak, but that's why we have a little trailer – a 15-foot-long 1965 Aladdin.



There's a little table up front where you can play cards.



This unfolds into a double bed, so even if the weather outside is frightful, inside it's delightful.



We left Tuesday and slowly made our way up the coast. Our first stop was Gold Beach. It was raining buckets. Later that evening the wind picked up. There were reports of gusts up to 97 mph on the Oregon coast. I don't know what the measurements were at Gold Beach, but the trailer was a rockin'.



The next day we meandered up U.S. Highway 101 to Coos Bay, then drove about 10 miles west to Sunset Bay State Park. This is a really beautiful place. It was raining hard, so most of my photos (like this one) were taken using my iPhone in a waterproof case.





We ventured out into the rain, then retreated to the comfort of our trailer. Later we went into Coos Bay and went treasure hunting.



On Thanksgiving the weather improved slightly. We explored the park.



This is were Malcolm Forbes started his transcontinental hot air balloon journey.



One of our favorite spots is the overlook for the Simpson Reef. This is a couple miles from the campground.



Here's the Simpson Reef.


There are a gazillion seals and sea lions here. You can hear them barking day and night from the campground.





We saw a Bald Eagle!




Please excuse the blurriness. I have a 20X zoom on my camera. That's not enough to get this close, so this is a combination of digital zooming and cropping. (200X?)



Suddenly the eagle flew out over the water and caught a fish.



It returned to the rock and ate the fish.



What an awesome sight!



We saw a rainbow over the Cape Arago Lighthouse.





About a mile from the campground is Shore Acres, which includes a botanical garden once owned by timber baron Louis Simpson. During the holidays it's decorated with thousands of lights. It was an impressive display.



On Friday we enjoyed a raging fire.


Hula kept one ear up and watched for intruders.



We took a photo Saturday morning before we left for the trip home.



One the way home we came across dinosaurs.



We ate turkey sandwiches near the Rogue River.



Rogue River at Gold Beach.



We stopped for a final photo at the Ship Ashore. Then we hurried home. Good times.