Redwood Coast Trip Days 1-2

We have done the Northern Oregon coast several times. As much as I love it, this year I was hoping to explore some of the south, maybe hit the Redwoods, and even Crater Lake. I am pleased to say we did that and more. Please join me on our wonderful adventure.

Day One – Sunday: Drive up through Northern Utah, Idaho, and into Oregon.

There are basically 3 options to get where we were staying. 1: i80 through the desolate desert, and up. 2. Up through Oregon, and then across a slightly less desolate area and go up and down some. or 3. All the way to Portland and then down the coast. We chose option 2. Something new and different, we thought it would be prettier, and not as desolate as option 1.

Mountains beyond Ogden. (DBP (Drive By Photography) Album).

 

This can’t be natural, right? Must by contrails. (DBP Album)

Yay, Idaho. (DBP Album)

Idaho is really just blah. We did discover one year that you can stop in Twin Falls and there is some pretty, if you need a midway excursion. But if you would rather push on, just keep going. (DBP Album)

 

Before long you hit Oregon. (DBP Album)

We took a truck bypass road and managed to avoid Ontario.

Interesting formation just east of Ontario. (DBP Album)

 

We went through Vale. It was only interesting since I have been watching Game Of Thrones. (DBP Album)

Some fun sun rays.(DBP Album)

The mountains along this stretch are kind of neat.(DBP Album)

Every couple miles we would see these signs, but the (new) center stripe was there the entire time. Why ya gotta lie ODOT? Haha, they probably just haven't gotten around to removing the signs. (DBP Album)

Old man of the rocks. At least that’s what I’m calling it.(DBP Album)

Looks like we’re going to get rained on. (DBP Album)

Yup. (DBP Album)

A rainbow behind us. (DBP Album)

It’s kind of fun driving through the country side with a mild storm. (DBP Album)

Not much longer and we arrived at our hotel in Burns. Not too shabby for what we paid. Nice room, pool, spa, and is dog friendly. Just an extra $5.00 for her.

We had a visit from a deer and her 2 fawn. They didn’t seem to mind us too much.

Not much later we heard what sounded like a tornado siren. Seriously. here was my thought process.

WTF? What is that? It sounds like a tornado siren…TORNADO?!?!? crap, what do I do? This place doesn’t have a basement… where do I go? Wait, it’s Oregon, they don’t get tornados. But it just rained, it could still be. Crap, what do I do? Ok, Oregon MAY get tornados, but not often enough to warrant having tornado sirens. Ok.. but what is it? Look around, residents are casually walking down the street, they don’t seem concerned. Maybe we are near a prison or something… OH THAT’S BETTER!!!

After discussing it with a few people I have determined it to be the local fire station, calling the volunteer fire fighters. The fire station was in the direction the sound came from, the air smelled smoky the following morning. Likely the lightning started a fire. Still a little troublesome.

After relaxing for the evening we went to bed. We hoped to get up an early start for the next leg of our journey.

Day 2 – Monday: Drive across Oregon to the coast.

After gassing up (quick reminder, the attendant has to pump it for you.) we were on our way.

Neat little rock formation outside of Burns, with a cave.

From Burns to Bend it is a strait line through… nothing. There are a few tiny towns, but mostly sagebrush.

They are kind of hard to make out in this shot, but you can see 2 of the 3 sisters, and the bachelor. I’m not sure how far away from them we are, but I love seeing the volcanic peaks in the distance.

Little better shot of the 3 sisters.

Getting closer.

Roxy fell asleep in her travel dishes. So adorable.

After Bend, you enter the forests again, and it is a much prettier drive.

Nice clouds.

After Lake Junction you travel strait uphill for awhile. I was marveling at how much it looked like Yellowstone through here, only to learn they are the same type of trees: Lodgepole Pines. They like volcanic soil.

After passing Crater Lake Junction you start going down hill towards diamond lake. This canyon takes you down pretty quickly, and is somewhat windy.

Still a very pretty drive down.

Just past Diamond Lake are our 2 adventures we had planned for.

We stopped by Watson Falls. It is a short .5 mile hike to the tallest waterfall is SE Oregon. You can see more of that adventure here.

We then stopped by Toketee Falls. Another short .5 mile trail. You can see more of that adventure here.

Enjoying some more of this pretty canyon.

Just before Roseburg we hit some construction while they cleaned up this landslide.

 

From Coquille to Bandon saw some of the ocean fog making it’s way up.

First view of the ocean! We are almost there!

We finally made it to our room, grabbed some dinner and settled in. I am actually pretty pleased with our accommodations this year. really nice and very well stocked. They have just about everything I could think of.

And I got a fun little bonus. The town we are staying in is small enough that there isn’t much light pollution. The town down south is as well. There was no fog, and it was a young moon. All of this combined allowed us to enjoy the Milky Way. Just jaw dropingly, awesome!

Well, that was just our adventure out to the coast. I have a ton more to share, but will break here.