Santa Rosa to Loletta, California and Gold Beach Oregon - February 28 - March 3rd

 We'd planned to hunker down another day with all the snow that fell on Highway 101 to the coast. After checking the internet for weather reports, road web cams, and finding the road reopened, at 10 am we made the decision to make a go of it in between storms and get to the coast to the Bear River Casino in Loleta California. We quickly put the Motorhome in "travel mode" and headed out at 10:45 am. With a stop for fuel we made it in 4 hours. 

During the drive it rained most of the way, but there were some sections where the sunshine poked through. There is a 10 mile section through the Redwoods which were closed the day before. You sure can see why, as there are tons of trees that came down on the power lines. The crews are working on it, so it was single lane alternating traffic through this area, multiple times. We were not stopped long though.

There are also some snowy bits.

Then through the huge redwoods.

We arrived at 3 pm and headed into the casino for a snack as we did not stop for lunch anywhere. Back at the coach, we set up and sat back for a quiet night. Lovely view from the parking lot.

Wednesday morning we decided to see if we can get in Turtle Rock RV Resort in Gold Beach Oregon today as originally planned. I'd already cancelled this day as we did not think we could make it over the pass. Today, finally is supposed to be a sunny day. It started out good with bright sun and not a cloud in the sky although very frosty at 32F (0C). 

So... jacks up at 9:15 and on our way. Some portions of the road just before Crescent City CA, still have a bit of frozen snow on the road, a little butt puckering for about 5 miles. Once we were down well under the 1500 feet it was just wet roads. Still a lot of debris on the sides of the roads from downed trees from the storm a few days ago. 

Going through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park area.

Once we got into Oregon, we fuelled up at the Fred Meyer at $5.02 per gallon for diesel. Yeah, a much better price. Shortly after leaving Brookings, the road became pretty windy again and 10 miles before Gold Beach there's one more pass to go over, Cape Sebastian at 1746 feet. Whew .... done with all of them hopefully.

We stopped a few times for Ray to take some ocean pictures. Warning the rest of the post contains lots of Sea Stacks aka Rocks!

We arrived at Turtle Rock RV Resort at 1 pm. We noticed a little Tavern (Hunter Creek bar and grill)  right at the entrance to the RV Park. After dropping the coach off in it's site, off we went for lunch. A cute "hole in the wall" place with lots of regulars. Food not bad either and really well priced ($12 for good fish and chips and the chips are home made).

After lunch we headed back the way we came in the car so Ray could take some pictures while the sun's shining, as tomorrow's weather is going downhill again with rain forecast. Today's highs are 46F with winds at 16mph from the north. We did manage to get a good walk on Meyers beach just down the way.

My pics lol of Meyers Beach.

Who's that guy? lol

Pistol Overlook.

Very misty with the surf.

Arch Rock, picture taken from Cape Sebastion overlook.

After 90 minutes of touring it's time to get back to the coach and set it up for the next three days. Here's the view out our front window.

Lots of bird activity.

And the bonus of a beautiful sunset with great reflections.

Thursday morning the expected rain did not start until 9am.... just when we thought we would go for a drive lol  After both having our showers and our bed changed, the sprinkles quit and the skies lightened up considerably. Out the door at 10:30 am for a bit of a tour of the Gold Beach area and picture opportunities for Ray. First up though is our beach to take a picture of Turtle Rock and the Kissing  Rocks.

Next up is the Town of Gold Beach with the Rogue River Bridge. We found a walking path on the dyke that went under the bridge.  A lovely little walk. Too bad we no longer have Freya, she would have loved this.

In the car again and headed back towards town so we could stop at the Mary D Hume shipwreck parking lot to get some more pictures of the bridge from a different angle and of course this shipwreck.

Not much left of this old gal.

The wreck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Rogue River Estuary

After taking pictures from below, Ray noticed a road up higher called Tom Cat Hill Road, so up and up we went, kind of like Lombard Street without all the gardens lol. He managed to get this shot.

90 minutes later after jumping in and out of the car it's time for lunch. Ray'd picked out the Gold Beach Barbecue. It has a high rating of 4.7 and boy is that rating right. Fabulous brisket and pulled pork, extremely juicy. I especially like that the pulled pork is juicy and not slathered in sauce. They have a sauce on the side (which apperently won an award in BBQ competition). We did not finish it all so he will have leftovers for dinner tonight. The meat is a good as the one we commented on in Terlingua, TX.

The pitmaster gave us a tour of his smoker, Jeff's pretty proud of it as he should be!

In this compartment he's smoking Mac and Cheese. The fire (only Black Oak) is underneath.

He just emptied these rotating trays of pork ribs and tri-tip.

His mascot.

Back in the car, we continued a bit further up the coast at Otter Point State Recreation Site. I stayed in the car as a lady told us the trail is difficult ... well apparently she went the opposite way and down a rope to the beach. It wasn't bad at all and I should've just gone with Ray. He was gone over 20 minutes, so I assumed it took a long time to get down to the beach. He was just busy taking tons of pictures. lol

A little further down the road is another beach access trail, so down we went again. Lots of sand dunes.

One more shot coming back before crossing the Rogue River Bridge of the town of Gold Beach. This definitely is a "summer town" with all of the beach activities. Pretty quiet now with the not so nice weather.

Back home by 2:30. Another lovely day exploring. We arrived home just in time for the predicted rains to begin. :)

Friday morning it's cool out at 34F but the skies were showing some blue patches. Interesting frost on the car.

We headed out the door by 8 am going south towards Brookings for some photo opportunities for Ray. We first stopped at the Whale's Head Viewpoint but the trail is really steep to the beach, so it's a no go. We drove further down to the House Rock Viewpoint and it still did not look good. lol  Since there's so much mist in the air and not enough sun, we decided to carry on to the furtherest viewpoints and work our way back.

I wanted to stop at the Harris Beach State Park to check out the RV sites to see if we would fit on another visit this way. Yup, some sites are big enough. They also have some awesome views from the day use area.

2 eagles. 

Next up Lone Ranch Beach:

After that came Natural Bridges. Google research indicated a 4 km trail to see the site. We were so surpised we can actually see them without walking very far. If you notice though, another couple of people did the hike and ended up on the top of the arch, squatting to be careful not to fall down!  You will have to zoom in the picture to see them. lol

The clouds started to come in so the next part of our trip don't have as nice skies.

Arch Rock State Park:

A lovely 1/4 mile trail around the overlook. It's definitely overcast now and the seas quite angry. We saw a crab boat checking his pots in the rough seas bouncing around like crazy. I guess he's doing it before the next big windstorm tonight and tomorrow.

The waves crashing over the rocks creating waterfalls.

Crazy crab boat.

Time to head home with one last stop at Meyers Beach again. The clouds are moving in and it's supposed to rain late this afternoon so we were lucky we got some sunshine. 

Here's a picture of our motorhome in Turtle Rock RV park  from across Hunter Creek .

    

Home by 10:45. Another great photo trip for Ray. Rest of the day he spent playing with his pictures while I caught up on laundry and dishes.  On the road again tomorrow.