With Veterans Day falling on a Thursday we decided to make a long weekend of it and escape to a location that was too far for a regular weekend. With cold weather and some snow on the east side of the Cascades we narrowed down our choices and headed to the South Coast. The quickest way to get to the Brookings vicinity is actually through California, down Hwy 199, the Redwood Highway, so we took off and headed there for an overnight along the Smith River. Things have been brown and dry in Central Oregon for a while so it was nice to wake up to blooming shrubs and lots of green the morning of Veterans Day.
Besides heading to the coast and bringing along some fishing gear we didn’t have much of a plan. On our way through the Redwoods we decided we’d spend the day on the beach, so we headed to Harris Beach State Park. Harris Beach has a pretty nice campground as far as state parks go. The bonus is it is just a quick walk and you can be exploring tidepools or strolling the sandy beach.
It wasn’t too busy, and compared to the weather to the north, that looked to be awfully rainy, the south coast lived up to its reputation of being “Oregon’s banana belt” with partly sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s.
Before we knew it the sun was sinking towards the horizon so we found a spot on the beach to watch the show. It was worth the price of admission, the colors were spectacular.
The next day we headed up the Chetco river for a bit of exploring and to see if we could find a spot to fish.
The Chetco runs a pretty shade of cloudy blue. It seems that the underlying geology has a bit of tint built in.
After driving upriver a few miles we found a side road (trail) and tried a bit of fishing. I’ll cut to the chase and let you know that there was a lot of casting, but no catching. It was still a nice excuse to explore the river for a couple days.
After exploring the Chetco I had the idea that we could drop over the top of the watershed and into the Rogue. But first we enjoyed a walk through the northernmost grove of Redwoods.
After the jaunt through the Redwoods we headed up and up, 20 miles later we were near the divide, with great views in every direction, I credit the Chetco Bar fire from 2017 for opening up some nice views.
Just as I thought we were going to be headed down into the Rogue we hit an unannounced gate. No, this wasn’t a change of ownership, here we were in the middle of Forest Service ownership with a locked gate. Oh well, we headed back the way we came. Determined to still wander up the Rogue it took up nearly all of our daylight to make our way there.
The next morning we had quite a drive ahead of us, so we stopped for a quick jaunt to say our farewell to the Coast, then it was back the way we came. A relaxing weekend on the South Coast.
If you want “the rest of the story” check out our video of the trip!:
Higher elevations in Rogue-Siskiyou, Six Rivers, Klamath national forest have gate closures during wet season to protect the Port Orford Cedar from root disease.
Thanks for adding that, it explains a lot. I just wish there was a sign down low to prevent the extra miles, but then again, it was a blue sky days with great views, so no regrets!