We have been here two weeks. Perhaps in another day or so we will have had our fill of this section of the Oregon coast and travel an hour north. Today we went south towards Brookings to check out a place we had missed on all our other trips through here. It’s call Secret Cove. It’s no secret, but the road signage calls it something else and you can not see anything of it from 101. If you follow the trail about a half a mile you start to get glimpses of the coast line. Go a little father and you are on a narrow cape overlooking a secret cove. I say ‘a’ as there is more than one cove. We failed to puzzle out the path to the beach, so we will have to return and do it again.
They call the center rock Whaleshead as it resembles a breaching whale. If only Alabama had some off shore rocks. If could figure out I do it, I would Photoshop a red rock Utah arch on an Oregon coast line picture.
After two days at Quosatana CG, we came back to the gravel bar on the Rouge – a great boon docking site.
Dorothy writes: This was a great day. First the mouse in the house is no longer among the living. You do not want a mouse in an RV for a couple of reason, one is that they chew on the wiring and secondly, they can carry a very bad virus, hantavirus, which you do not want. Leaving the traps set in case he/she had a partner.
We went on a 1.5 mile hike, half of it was downhill to the best scenic overlook on the Oregon coast and that is saying a lot. It is part of the Samuel H. Boardman State Park and the views are absolutely spectacular. Of course, the hike back to the car was uphill for 3/4 of a mile, but we survived. We also walked the Whaleshead beach . The haystacks along the coast can't be beat and are worth the drive from Alabama.
By this time it was lunchtime, so we headed to Brookings to once again have lunch at Pancho's Restaurant Y Cantina. This is the most reasonable place we have found to eat along the coast and the food is excellent. We had fish tacos again which were almost as good as the ones we had in Baja a few years ago.
We returned to the Secret Cove area and found the path to the beach. It goes straight down. In 10 minutes you are at sea level. Dorothy wisely did not descend the rocks to the sand. I did and had trouble getting back up. Loose gravel on rock is no friend of old folks. Half way back up, I knew if my foot slipped I would go all the way back down and something would break. Sobering and it was only 11am.
The Secret Cove reminds both of us of Vietnam. No, Dorothy was not there, but when she saw the islands she said it looked like the ones she saw advertising a cruise there. The cove comes complete with a waterfall.
Islands in Haiphong Harbor
We are parked on the Rouge River in southern Oregon. I spent the last hour looking at an osprey and gull do endless circles in the sky seeing who could out soar the other one. A few minutes went by and the osprey tucked his wings and dove in the water. SPLASH. He missed. No fish that time. Then I watched two spaniels frolic in the water. The geese are just sitting there, they don’t do much. About every hour or so a jet boat goes by carrying tourists upstream or downstream. The sea breeze is just divine. The two weeks we have been here has been the best weather we have ever had on the coast. Don’t you feel sorry for us? Where will we go for sunset today?
The bridge over the Rouge at Gold Beach. Most of the bridges on 101 are architectonically significant.
The prediction of fires in the three western states has been high all year. So far, the number of fires and area burned has been much less than the average for the last ten years. Other than a fire in Canada while we were in northern Wyoming, we have not seen any smoke.
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