Oregon – The Rugged Coast and Mount Hood
Oregon is known for its rugged coastline and we followed it for most of our time in this state, only venturing inland to loop around Mount Hood. Alaska calls and so we did not spend the time in Oregon that it deserves for a full exploration.
Crossing the state line, we followed the coast up to Port Orford where we hiked out to the point to explore the old lifeguard station and its wooden lifeboat.
Coos Bay is a small maritime town with an interesting little railway museum that David quickly visited. Taking us north from Coos Bay is the very impressive McCullough Memorial Bridge. Our next stop was the Oregon Dunes National Reserve where we hiked 7km through the dunes and along the beach.
Having worked up an appetite walking the dunes, we crossed the Siuslaw River Bridge to Florence for a superb fish’n’chip meal.
The next day we walked the Amanda Trail – dedicated to the memory of Amanda, a blind Coos woman who suffered injustices during the reservation years in the 1860’s. It was quite a climb (500m over 11.5 km), with a false summit, then a second ascent just when you thought you had reached the top. Francine was not amused.
We continued north up the coastline, stopping for a sandwich stuffed full of delicious fresh dungeness crab, before crossing the Yaquina Bay Bridge on our way to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Here we visited the lighthouse and then descended to the beach to explore the beautiful rock pools at low tide and the beach made up of smooth round volcanic cobbles.
Before turning inland towards Mount Hood, we visited Pacific City and walked on the beach.
Next was an unplanned visit to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum prompted by a roadside sign. It was very interesting with a large range of exhibits including the massive Spruce Goose (Howard Hughes’ baby), an SR71 spy plane and a selection of thought-provoking military drones.
Climbing towards Mount Hood we took a diversion for a short hike to the Zig Zag waterfalls before circumnavigating the mountain. It was a clear day and the views were spectacular, as we passed through beautiful orchards with hundreds of blossoming fruit trees. In the afternoon we descended to the Columbia River and hiked 12.5 km along the Historic Columbia River Highway. Afterwards we crossed the River Hood Bridge into Washington State, drove west along the river before crossing the Bridge of the Gods back into Oregon to visit the Multnomah Falls and concluding our tour of Oregon.
