South Through Oregon

Highway 101 brought us the whole way through Oregon. And what a beautiful drive it was! Even though it rained pretty much the whole two days it took us to drive the length of the state, which meant we didn't stop off much. The only interesting places to stop were the viewing points along the battered Pacific coastline as most of the towns along the route are seaside towns and it clearly isn't the season yet.

The journey started in the north where we crossed the mighty Columbia River to enter Oregon. This area of the state is heavily industrialised, the main industry being the timber one. Lumber yards and ships dominate the area for the first few miles. Forests are a common sight the whole way down the coastline as Oregon has the only temperate rainforest in the world. And boy does it rain.

We travelled west from Longview until we reached Astoria where we joined the famous Highway 101. This will eventully bring us the whole way to Los Angeles. First up was the forests, farmlands and wave battered Pacific coastline of Oregon. Naturally, being a coast road it was windy but I don't think either of us were prepared for the hills. It made for some breathtaking views that broke out from behind dense vegetation and it seemed like there was a viewing point every mile along the road. Perhaps it is the reason why the highway is so well known.

This route travels the wholeway down the coast until San Francisco. In Summer it is full of tourists (like ourselves) but it is quieter at the moment. It's not that we can go that fast anyway, in an effort to use less gas (petrol) we drive it alot handier. We are up to 7.2 miles to the gallon at the moment, hopefully when we get onto flatter routes we can push that towards double figures. Anyway, back to the driving.

The highway leaves the industrial timber areas and reaches the coast around Cannon Beach. >From here it takes a detour inland a bit through the farmlands around Tillamook which is famous for cheese in this parts. It rejoins the coast around Lincoln City and follows it pretty much the whole way to Newport. Just south of here is where we stopped for the night in a small little lay by where there is a hiking trail down to a little cove called Devils Churn. When we woke up in the morning the tide was out so we didn't get to see it which was a little disappointing as the Shell attendent back up in Washington had recommended it.

We hit the road again and the further south we got the taller and denser the forests became. The coast seemed to be taking alot more abuse from the sea down here, there were lots of sea stacks to be seen around each corner - some about a hundred metres out to sea.

We made one stop in a small town called Bandon but as mentioned previously, it seemed to be a town waiting for Summer to come. Which is what we hope to find as we crossed over the border into California. After a quick Agricultural checkpoint asking us if we had any fruit on board. We had stocked up on food in the o% sales tax region of Oregon so a quick Irish "no" sufficied and we crossed into the Golden State.....

Also for some better photos you can check out mine (Emers) here!