Oregon Random Ride Finale: Darlingtonia to Ashland

July 12, 2015, was the last day of our random ride, cut short because of car trouble. We tried to figure out what had happened and replace the leaking fluids, but what to do was a mystery. We decided to rush back to the mechanics in Ashland, who had made repairs at the beginning of this trip, and have them check it out. But there was one more stop to make before leaving the coast and making a beeline to the east.

California pitcher plant

Just north of Florence, there is a little park a few miles off Highway 101 called the Darlingtonia State Natural Site. With my knowledge dating back to Little Shop of Horrors, venus fly traps in flower pots, and studying botany at Humboldt State University, I only recently discovered carnivorous plants are not only in the jungles of Borneo. Darlingtonia californica, the California pitcher plant or "cobra lily", is endemic to northern California and southern Oregon. Where there is cold water, seeps, or bogs, this beautiful-looking green predator may grow in large populations. They suck water up from their roots to fill leaves modified into pitchers, attracting unsuspecting insects with a sweet nectar. When the insects fall into the liquid, the plant dines on and digests the poor critters to make up for a lack of nitrogen in the soil. "It's supper time..." I first discovered these pitcher plants when camping in the Siskiyou range; however, the population by Florence is much larger.

We took Highway 126 along the Suislaw River to Interstate 5 and to Ashland, passing a wildlife refuge I would like to visit, and stopping for lunch at Ixtapa Family Mexican Restaurant in the town of Veneta, just west of Eugene. The truck seemed to do OK on the trip up I-5 to Ashland. We took a room at the Rodeway Inn and got dinner at the adjacent Wild Goose Cafe and Bar. Little did we know, it was open mic night. So we followed dinner with a few drinks and entertainment from Ashland's local singer-songwriters--from seasoned folk singers, to a clever cover of The Elements by Tom Lehrer, to a fledgling who had never played in front of people before.

The next day, we took the truck to the Shell station mechanics, and they again dropped us off at Lithia Park while they spent nearly the whole afternoon fixing her up. This time, we walked the trail a bit and had lunch at Umi Sushi and nice coffees from the Mix Bakeshop. And we saw a few more animals at the duck pond, including the western pond turtle, which is a native and critically sensitive species in Oregon and a species of special concern in California. They may be common in southern Oregon, but they are declining in other parts of their range. They are usually shy of people, but this turtle seemed well adjusted to our presence.

A western pond turtle makes his home in Lithia Park.

American robin with his catch of the day. Is that a fish?

This is a male cardinal meadowhawk (Sympetrum Illotum)--
a very pretty red dragonfly found in the western U.S.

Lithia Creek

When the car was finally ready, we headed back to California. Of course, no trip down Interstate 5 from Oregon is complete without getting the shot of Mt. Shasta. Not much snow, however. Tells the tale of the drought.

The trip ended meeting dad for dinner at Black Bear Diner in Paradise--home to my parents and nearly home for us. I was already planning the 2016 random ride, starting at the Darlingtonia reserve.

Oregon Coast: Umpqua River to Florence

Eel Lake,  William M. Tugman State Park

July 11, 2015. We started the morning at the scenic Eel Lake, where we had camped at Tugman State Park, and took a short walk down to the dock. enjoying the beautiful lake with emergent vegetation and surrounding forested hills. We then headed north to the Umpqua River lighthouse, which sits on the western edge of Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. Back in '05, we had visited this lighthouse and took the tour up the spiral stairs into the awesome red and white glass top housing the lens; this time, we enjoyed the lighthouse from outside of the closed gate. Across from the lighthouse, I took in the view of the mouth of the Umpqua River and its two jetties, where it meets the sea, across the very green Ziolkouski Beach Park. What I didn't see was another hidden lighthouse in the trees. Look even closer, and between the south jetties is the Umpqua Aquaculture triangle oyster farm. So when I pop the next luscious oyster in my mouth, I can imagine this is where it came from--which is better than the wild oysters being over-harvested and depleted while the dredging destroys the bottom of the sea. Thumbs up for aquaculture.

Ziolkouski Beach Park. Look to the right, just below the landward edge of the longer south levee for the hidden lighthouse. Zoom in to see the rows of suspended oysters on ropes in the triangle between the two south levees.

Instead of climbing the spiral stairs, we visited the museum and gift shop just up the street and spent a good amount of time learning about the history of this place and buying a few gifts. Just a bit off Highway 101, we did our random riding up Lighthouse Drive between Umpqua Lighthouse State Park and the Umpqua River. Lighthouse Drive ended on Salmon Harbor Drive, and we had a very windy, rainy picnic along a little inlet called Half Moon Bay, where people fished the Umpqua along the pier. Sandwiched between Highway 101 and the sea, the only place to wind up was back at at the highway at Winchester Bay. Our left turn continued north.

Umpqua River Light

Now, we were riding along the dunes. My brother recommended a dune buggy ride, so in the late afternoon, we stopped at Sand Dunes Frontier to experience the sand on wheels rather than on foot. It's a different world than hiking the wild places--it's where the federal government gave thousands of acres of what was once pristine natural dunes to a big human playground. My eco adult side felt guilty about supporting an industry of vehicles compacting the sand and damaging the natural dune ecosystem processes, while the little kid in me was having a blast of a good time. We had a crazy driver with a crazy MadMax-like rig for multiple passengers. The old buggy gave him a little trouble while he had us out on the sand, but he got it started again and gave us a ride for our money. The scenery was beautiful, and we were seeing parts of the Oregon Dunes NRA that we would not have been able to access on foot. And, of course, we hit the highest hills at top speed for that amusement park effect.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area with an ATV kicking up sand (upper left).

When that bout of fun was over, it was time to head up to Florence to settle in for the night. We found a room at the Le Chateau Inn, which seemed nice and reasonable, but we parked in the back next to a guy living out of his truck. When I went to move my truck, we discovered an unpleasant surprise of a puddle of leaked fluid. Car trouble. Again. Dinner, however, was on the agenda. We took the leaking truck down to the Port of Siuslaw along the Siuslaw River, and by recommendation, dined on pilings on the river at Mo's Restaurant--a trendy seafood place that had a cool atmosphere, lovely view, and delicious clam chowder. Back at the Chateau, we enjoyed a nice relaxing hot tub before settling in for the night. We saved worrying about the car trouble for the morning.

Oregon Coast: Coquille River to Tugman State Park

Cape Arago State Park

Coquille River Light

View of Coquille River jetties from Bullards Beach. The actual
functioning light is now on the south jetty.

July 10, 2015. The morning started with another visit to the Coquille Point unit of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. We walked the interpretive trail and at the end of the point saw the Coquille River lighthouse to the north. Of course a visit to the lighthouse was on mom's agenda, and we were happy to indulge her. But we wondered if there was a shorter way over there from Bandon than going back to 101. Our wandering took us to a wharf on the south side of the Coquille River, between us and the lighthouse, just east of the south jetty where the Coquille meets the ocean. The Coquille is as wide as a bay here, so after a brief pit stop at the wharf--and me lecturing some tourists about feeding bread to wild gulls that a local bakery sold to them for that purpose--we left Bandon and returned to Highway 101. To get to the lighthouse that is just a bit more than 1,000 feet across the river from Bandon, we had to travel about 1/2 mile east out of Bandon, then about 2 miles north to cross the river, then meet up with Bullards Beach Road at Bullards Beach State Park, then travel

From the south side of the Coquille River

another 2 or 3 miles south again along the Coquille River to Bullards Beach and further south down the little peninsula to the lighthouse. However,  no one was in any big hurry and it's a beautiful ride. This is a rather small and cute looking lighthouse, restored in the 1970s. There were no tours, but we were able to go inside and do our donation-shopping at the gift shop.

Then we did a little exploring. First, my husband and I took a very nice and mellow trail east along the Coquille River. Then, my brother and I went the opposite direction--west out to nearly the seaward end of the north jetty, built by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide a safe entry to the Coquille River for ships to dock at the Port of Bandon. There were other people on the jetty, but the waves came up fairly high and were crashing against the rocks we were standing on. It seemed rather dangerous to me, so I suggested we turn back. It turns out my web search after the fact reveals that the jetties are not open to human recreation because of the hazardous conditions. In other words, we and a bunch of other fools were going where we weren't supposed to go.

Enough adventure for the morning, we drove back out through Bullards Beach State Park now thinking about lunch. I wanted to have a picnic at the park, but there were no other takers on that idea. Instead, we made a beeline several miles north to Coos Bay to eat at a Subway sandwich shop. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of what we missed along the way. Our next destination was the Cape Arago lighthouse. I wanted to avoid the Coos "Bay Area" of Oregon and go back south to take Seven Devils Road. I liked the name of it--thinking there were perhaps seven devilish rock formations we would enjoy encountering.

Seven Devils Road to Point Arago State Park

We backtracked several miles to follow the sign to Seven Devils on West Beaverhill Road. Our first diversion was to turn left on East Humphrey's Road to Whiskey Run and found ourselves at Whiskey Run Beach. Whiskey Run is small and secluded--only ourselves and a couple of young partiers were there. We spent a little time enjoying the beach, then went back to Seven Devils Road and took it north to the Seven Devils State Recreation Site. The name of Seven Devils Road had nothing to do with rock formations out at sea. This wayside was a nice beach with a restroom and signs explaining the origin of the name--the seven dangers that early travelers encountered on the narrow, windy road that paralleled the Pacific. Some travelers settled at the wayside, and Oregon State Parks acquired the private property in the 1960s.

Seven Devil's Wayside. I could see settling here.

As we continued north towards Point Arago State Park, we encountered the South Slough Estuarine Research Reserve. This area covers the southern tidal marsh estuary connecting Coos Bay with freshwater streams to the east and south. It's a delta with forests and wetlands and a wealth of fish and wildlife for researchers, students, visitors, hikers, and birders to use and enjoy. It sounded like heaven to me, except the main trail was closed and would have been too lengthy to take in the amount of time we had. So I had to settle for the little nature trail around the closed interpretive center. It was a nice hike but not quite the wetland birder dream, so here's a place I need to try to get to again to explore more thoroughly. Mom wanted to see the Cape Arago light before it got dark, so we pushed on.

We came from the south to the Cape Arago State Park headlands, with beautiful ocean views and hiking trails down to the coves. On our way down to the cove, an enthusiastic hiker told us about whales that had been passing by; we tried to look out for these whales, but didn't see them. We did enjoy beautiful views of the coves before hiking back up and moving on. The Cape Arago light is on a peninsula that is private land, with no public access. The only view of the light is from an unmarked pullout on the west side of the Cape Arago Highway. The lighthouse isn't very near this spot, but it's a good view with a zoom lens. I discovered a little trail that went from the lookout along the highway and into the trees but didn't find a better viewpoint.

The inaccessible private bluff that holds the lighthouse

It was after this that going through the Coos Bay area was inevitable. We decided we didn't want to stay in a motel but would rather find a campground north of Coos Bay. Because we were now riding along the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, campgrounds we stopped at were filled up with people and their ATVs, trailers, and other dune-buggy toys. So we kept looking. Luckily, we were told about William M. Tugman State Park with a campground nestled on the east side of the highway at Eel Lake. There was a vacancy here and without the noisy dune recreationists. There was still wood available to build a fire, and we were able to enjoy a night of camping in a very nice scenic area.

Before moving onto the next chapter of this random ride, I'll leave you with a little video of Cape Arago.

Oregon coast: New River to Bandon

Common murres and gulls on top of a rock at Coquille Point, Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Bandon, OR

July 9, 2015.

New River ACEC

From Cape Blanco, we traveled back to Highway 101 and north along the Sixes and its tributary creeks until we were in the vicinity of the New River. New River is just north of Floras Lake, emerging at Floras Creek near the town of Langlois, and running north alongside the coast of the Pacific Ocean into Coos County. It's a trip, because the river actually runs alongside the surf on the sandy beaches. Accessing the river is not a simple matter if you're not sure where to go. We turned toward the river and found ourselves in the New River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM manages public lands throughout the nation, often meeting the needs of multiple land uses for people and nature alike, but an ACEC is land set aside to manage specifically for the special cultural or natural resources that land has to offer. The New River ACEC is a unique set of ecosystems rich with a diversity of habitat types including estuary wetlands, meadows, forest, shrubland, and dunes. These ecosystems host a wide variety of birds, plants, and other wildlife--some rare and native to the State of Oregon.

The ACEC has four access points to its four main units. We encountered Storm Ranch first, which has a nice trail system. We started at a visitor center at what was once a thoroughbred horse ranch owned by the Wilson sisters from the rock band Heart. BLM acquired the land from Ann and Nancy, and it is now open to the public for low-impact recreation such as hiking and birding. From the visitor center, we took River Road to the second parking lot to hike the east and west Muddy Lake Trail loop. At the crossroad between a birding platform at Muddy Lake and a spur trail to the New River, I chose the birding platform. My brother took the spur trail and caught the view of the New, which I missed out on. After this hike, and continually encountering another traveler and her dog, we moved on up the highway.

The Lost Lake Trail unit of the ACEC caught our attention--we liked the name and decided to check it out. If we were enchanted by the name of the trail, the utter beauty of this scenic hike was even more enticing until we stood in awe next to the gorgeous little hidden lake that gave the trail its name.    It was magical. Two of us decided to stop there and relax near the lake and take in the quiet and the peace, since this was a relatively unpopulated trail.

tree snags emerge from within the lake

My brother and I decided to hike on. Now back to the part of me not getting to see the New River. Knowing we were going west and running into dune-like terrain, we were certain that if we kept going that direction, we would get near enough to overlook the beach that hosts the river. Dune hiking, however, can be deceiving in two ways--direction and time. Without a map and any certainty on which way to turn at the fork just at the northern tip of the western most little lake connected to Lost Lake, we used up time and physical energy trudging through the sandy dune in the wrong direction (north) until we were met with a surprising sign that told us we were now exiting public land. We unknowingly wandered onto the private land and had to turn back to the main trail and head west again. The other deception of dune hiking is the feeling of "we're almost there." I thought every hill in front of me would be the one I would stop at to take in the anticipated view, and then we would turn around. But at the crest of every hill was a new hill until I realized I was running out of energy, we were running out of time, and the mother and husband left behind were probably getting annoyed having to wait. So I rested while my more fit and adventurous brother scouted ahead to confirm the view of the New was still a ways off, and we turned back. I think we hiked far enough west to have left the ACEC and enter the southern tip of the Bandon State Natural Area, a roadless forested dune wilderness between Lost and Laurel lakes and New River. Halfway back, I noticed I had left the lens cap of my mother's camera at my resting spot. So we had to backtrack to find the lens cap and double-hike that portion of the dune system before our worn out legs met up with a little more solid ground. That was quite a workout.


Bandon

Sore and getting hungry, we reached our car and left the ACEC to head north towards the town of Bandon. We got a nice room at the La Kris Inn, owned by a couple of professional photographers, Steve and Susan Dimock, who displayed their beautiful work of Oregon coast birds, landscapes, and wildlife--and that work was temptingly for sale in the office. We satisfied our hunger by getting some nice Chinese food just down the street from our motel at the Asian Gardens restaurant and lounge. The evening was still young and there was still a good amount of daylight to do some exploring. To my absolute delight, we stumbled upon one of the many units of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge at Coquille Point. We walked a portion of the interpretive trail and saw a rock topped with gulls and common murres, as well as stunning views of the rocky coastline.

As it started to get dark, we enjoyed an incredible sunset over the Pacific.
I decided this would be our first stop of the following morning, and we returned to our motel. The night wasn't over yet. My brother likes to party when we travel, so we set out to find a nice local bar to top off a great day with a couple of drinks. We heard about some good places in the old part of town, but didn't know exactly where to go or how long it would take to walk there. We ended up back at the Asian Gardens chatting up a storm with the bartender about music and being in bands, and after our drinks, stumbled back the block or two to our room.

It was a fantastic day of experiences I never had before and may not ever have again. Although, some day I might realize the goal of actually seeing the New River. There are a couple of roads that get pretty close to it, but who would have known when using chance and randomness as our mode of travel.

Oregon coast - Ophir Beach to Cape Blanco

Battle Rock wayside, Port Orford, OR

July 8, 2015. We started with a morning walk in Gold Beach then packed up and continued our road trip up U.S. Highway 101.

Ophir Beach

We made a number of small stops, including Ophir Beach, which is just about seven miles to the north. It is a quiet and peaceful little beach right off the highway and just the right kind of spot for resting the soul and body in between stretches of driving. While sitting on the beach, we were visited by what I'm guessing was a juvenile ring-billed gull. There are other similar looking gulls in the area, such as California gull, western gull, mew gull, and Thayer's gull; and in late summer, Heerman's gull. Even the best birders need a good field guide on hand and a lot of patience and experience to truly distinguish between these gulls, particularly at the juvenile stage. When we weren't visiting with the gulls, we were marveling over driftwood art. I see the fellow below as a young dragon.

A driftwood dragon--more of nature's art

Best guess: Juvenile ring-billed gull

Hazy morning view from Ophir Beach

Later that morning, we visited Humbug Mountain State Park, about 28 miles north of Gold Beach and just south of Port Orford. Humbug Mountain is a large forested hill that towers between the highway and the coastline. We visited the inland side along the highway, but didn't spend much time there. We totally skipped the Prehistoric Gardens after getting snapshots of the dinosaur statues, because we tend to avoid expensive tourist traps. Sometimes that's a mistake, because ancient nature and history could be in the hands of a private enterprise and worth the cost.

Battle Rock Wayside

Beach at Battle Rock Wayside

A lot of time was spent at the Battle Rock Wayside in Port Orford. It started with a little history--a piece of the wreck of a steam schooner called Cotteneva that hit Battle Rock in a wind storm in 1937. Then we read about the battle that took place at Battle Rock between the Quatomah band of the Tututni tribe of Native Americans and nine European settlers led by Captain William Tichener in 1852. More battles and alleged massacres ensued until treaties were established with the natives to allow the settlement of Port Orford in 1856. From the wayside parking lot, we took a trail through a beautifully vegetated park down to the beach that hosted the ominous presence of Battle Rock itself.

Battle Rock

But this was not a day of bloodshed from cannons and arrows. Battle Rock hosts some of the best tide pools in the area, and a good hour of tide pooling was in order. Climbing down and around the rock  formations at low tide unveiled a spectacular variety of marine life, such as beautiful aggregating and giant green anemones, ribbed limpets, acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnacles, turban snails, and all kinds of other interesting little critters not easily identifiable by a novice tide pooler like me.

Nice gatherings of aggregating anemones

Lovely gooseneck barnacles

Let's all squeeze in and share that wall, my fellow anemones

Ribbed limpets parked near a cluster of acorn barnacles and a host of other small rock dwellers

Cape Blanco State Park

We continued our journey northward, and our next big diversion was at the Sixes River.  Mom's a lighthouse nut; and though we had seen the lighthouse on previous lighthousing trips, there was more to see and do at Cape Blanco. As we traveled west on Cape Blanco Road along the Sixes River, the historic Hughes house caught our eye. We dropped in for a visit; and after our self-guided tour of the preserved mansion, we were treated to an enactment of a day in the family life of Patrick and Jane Hughes. The Hughes were Irish settlers who came to Oregon looking for gold. In 1860, they settled on the Sixes and built up a dairy dynasty from nearly nothing. The enactment was Jane talking with an Irish relative who was visiting from Dublin. We got the feel of the hardships the family faced before building their modest dairy farm into a very successful enterprise. The home was built around 1898, and Jane lived in it until 1923. It was a cool idea for volunteer staff to entertain us with their little skit and teach us some history at the same time.

There was more history to enjoy at our visit to the Cape Blanco lighthouse. 

We were treated to a tour from more volunteers from the Cape Blanco Heritage Society, including a detailed discussion of the 1870 lighthouse history and a climb up the very steep spiral stairs. The stairs are not for the faint of heart, but the views from the top of the lighthouse are spectacular, and standing next to the enormous Fresnel lens is an experience of itself--well worth a little vertigo. After the tour, we went to the gift shop and bought a couple of warm hoody sweatshirts, and then went on our way. We generally shop at the lighthouse gift shops, knowing the money goes to the continued care and preservation of these historic treasures, funded mostly by donations and people like us buying gifts and hoodies. 

View from top of Cape Blanco lighthouse

It was getting towards evening, and we were fortunate to secure a campsite at the Cape Blanco State Park campground without a reservation. We had a little time before making dinner and settling in to take a brief hike from the lighthouse road down the cape. I started by photographing a few succulents I couldn't identify and then the views from the trail, which were amazing. 

Gorgeous view from Cape Blanco trail; but don't get too close to the edge

The trail looped us back to our campsite. Camping in these woods was quite a good ending for a rather fantastic day on the Oregon coast.