The ocean, dunes and spectacular nature: Coos Bay and Florence

What a wonderful place to stay! A cabin, or, rather a "tiny home" on the waterfront, at Coos Bay's Bay Point Landing, an RV ground with Airstreams to rent and cabins like ours:

Enjoyed the sunset, though it was ice-cold, around 20-25 deg F only, and, we, unfortunately, couldn't use the patio and didn't fire up the pit neither. But, we had a great dinner at 7 Devils Brewing Company, and, fortunately, met with the local tourism rep who helped us to create an interesting itinerary for the next day. 

 

Hated to leave our cabin on Friday morning, frosty again, but sunny. After check-out, we drove to Charleston, one of three communities in this area. While Coos Bay and North Bend are situated in the inlet, Charleston is oriented towards the Pacific and has to offer three State Parks in a row, one more dramatic than the other!

Cape Arago (3 photos above), Shore Acres and Sunset Bay State Parks are spectacular: dramatic reefs, rocks, wild woods, rough coasts, high waves, sea lions, birds, just gorgeous. One of our fav places in the world!

Simpson Reef (Cape Arago) - with Sea Lions below:

Sunset Point with Lighthouse above and below

Shore Acres Botanical Garden below:

After this absolutely unique experience, we drove back towards Coos Bay. Coos Bay has the largest deep-draft port between San Francisco and the Puget Sound in Washington State,  still a highly active harbor, especially for the lumber trade. Timber mills, mostly producing wood chips, are still to be seen. 

The city's highlight is the Coos History Museum, which opened in 2015. At our last visit we had a hard-hat tour through the construction site. Now: highly instructive exhibitions, which create a better understanding of life in Coos County and Oregon’s South Coast, past and present. In different sections it deals with the "Uplands" (Overland Travel, Mining, Logging & Lumbering and famous people), with  "Tidewater"(Shipbuilding, Potlach, Bounty from Waters) and  "Seashore" (Natural History, Geography, Flora & Fauna).

 

Another famous personality out of Coos Bay - as we learned in an exhibition at the Coos Art Museum - is Steve Prefontaine. On South Broadway this famous athlete, who we already "met" in Eugene, is immortalized in larger-than-life murals. He was the 1970s running sensation, spent his junior year at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and, ran the 5,000-meter race in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. A tragic car accident in 1975 stopped his promising career at the age of 24.

Yet from the city of Coos Bay it’s a short trip to the Southern Oregon Coastal Wilderness with the Oregon Dunes, also called Oregon's Adventure Coast. Long stretches of sandy beach and dunes are perfect for ATV adventures or "dune buggy rides". Done it, had it, quite an adventure! 

On to the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, in a stretch of towering sand dunes, also part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The Umpqua River Lighthouse at Winchester Bay towers over the beach where the Umpqua River empties into the Pacific. The 65-ft high lighthouse was constructed in 1890 after the first lighthouse collapsed in a storm.

 

 

 

 Later in the afternoon we explored Florence, a bit further south, with a nice historic riverfront and a scenic boardwalk, quaint little shops and cafés (photos on left and below). It was originally the winter home for the Siuslaw tribe. Later in the evening we had a wonderful dinner at one of the top restaurants in the Area: the Waterfront Depot. Had gorgeous braised lamb shank and Peter had shrimp-crusted halibut perfectly in harmony with a wonderful Oregon Pinot Noir before we retired,,,