Gold Beach, OR to Brookings, OR

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Today we decided to drive a small part of the Oregon coast.  We headed non-stop north to Gold Beach.  It was VERY foggy and we hoped that by noon or so it would clear off.

We stopped at Gold Beach Visitor Center.  We saw a walkway to the beach.  This giant wild fennel was growing along the pathway.  We were told this wild  fennel did not have a bulb. 

This is our first step onto the Pacific beach on the Oregon coast.

The second place we visited was the Myrtlewood Grove just 7 miles east of Gold Beach.In Oregon, this tree is known as Oregon Myrtle, while in California it is called California Bay Laurel

This hike led us to the largest known Myrtle tree. It is approximately 88 feet tall, 42 feet in circumference, and its canopy is nearly 70 feet wide.  This one base looks like it split into 4 trunks.

As you can tell the fog has not cleared yet.  On the way back into Gold Beach we drove along side the Rogue River

This is the bridge that crosses the Rogue River in Gold Beach.

This sad wreckage is actually a point of interest. The Mary D. Hume, named after his wife, was built in 1881 by R.D. Hume for his Cannery in Gold Beach.  Although Mary D. Hume is on the National Register of Historic Places, she is not maintained and she is slowly breaking apart and sliding into the Gold Beach muddy waters, as you can tell.  Looks like water pollution, not even suitable for fish habitat.

As we drove southward back towards Brookings, we stopped at almost every pullout.  As you can see it is still foggy.  This view is neat because of the huge rocks on the beach, the highway and the small camping area in the middle of the picture.

This is another beach.  The tide is going out at this point.  The Oregon coast seems to have lots of these huge boulders in all the beaches.
  

This picture shows how thick the fog still is and it is about 2 pm.

More incredible beach.  I included this picture with the people in it to give some perspective. This is Meyers Creek Beach in Pistol River State Park.
This is more of the same beach. I enjoy the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks and onto the beach.

Again more of the same beach.  You can see the same two people near the biggest rock now. 

Another pretty beach area.  See the small space between the 2 rocks?  The crashing wave sound was awesome.

An overlook along Hwy 101.  Not sure which beach we are overlooking, but it is so beautiful.  Still foggy as you can tell.

Here we are taking a short hike to Arch Rock.  I was intrigued by the grassy area on top of one the these rocks.  The seagulls like it also.

Here is Arch Rock.  It is 500 feet off the beach.

Starting just before Arch Rock we are on the Samuel H Boardman State Park which runs 11 miles along Hwy 101.
Isn't this view spectacular?

More spectacular views of a secluded beach.  

At the stop above, I noticed the little pine trees had these "flowers" at the end of their new growth.  We wondered if these are flowers or not because we have not seen any pine trees bloom???  There were pine cones elsewhere in the same tree.

Here we are at the Natural Bridges viewpoint.  You can see at least 2 natural bridges from here.  Stunning!!!  Tic is such a good picture taker!

This is called Whale Rock. When the waves crash against the rock, it is supposed to "see the water spout spray".  We never did see that effect.  Perhaps because the tide was going out.

In the grass near the parking lot here at Whale Rock, were these little iris growing. This flower is right in the middle of a clump of grass and did not look like a separate plant.  Intriguing!

This was the last beach we walked on.  Dusty gives perspective to the size of these rocks.  Look at the timbers caught in the top of the biggest rock. There was lots of timber on many of the beaches.  I wondered if they washed up after the tsunami in Japan.

Because the tide was out, we could see seaweed, barnacles and clam looking creatures on the rocks.  There was a warning sign in the parking lot telling us the shellfish were toxic.  Really made me want to swim in the water...NOT!!!

As we headed more inland, still on Hwy 101 we passed this meadow full of elk. None are as large as we saw the day before.

On Hwy 199 on the way back to O'Brien, we saw this group of madrone trees.  Notice the reddish trunk.  I believe they are an evergreen tree.  Interesting.