Sunday, September 9, 2007

Sea Caves to Port Orford


The flight to Portland went smoothly. We had a Pontiac Grand Am as our rental car to drive to Redmond. I had purchased a motorcycle helmet on ebay and by chance the seller was in Portland so I arranged to pick it up instead of him shipping it. That all worked out well and we made it to rent the bike as planned. There was some question about that at the time.
We had dinner in Sisters about 25 miles from Redmond at a place named "El Rancho Grande" Pretty good Mexican food. After dinner we rode on through the forest in the dark on the McKenzie Highway 242. It is a narrow road full of many sharp turns which was fun on a motorcycle, but I wished there had still been daylight. We made it to Eugene about 9:30pm to stay the night in a motel.
The next morning we ate a continental breakfast in the motel and headed to the coast at Florence then north on 101. Based on my internet research we stopped at the Darlingtonia Botanical Garden just north of Florence and as far as the Sea Lion Caves stopping at coastal viewpoints along the way. When we returned to Florence we stopped for an early lunch of Clam Chowder at Mo's which was recommended by various reports and Steve at Eagle Rider Rentals. It was pretty good, but ours seemed to have more potato than clam for my expectations.
We continued down to North Bend/Coos Bay and out to the Cape Arago State Park to see sea lions and whales from the overlooks. It was a very pleasant road and some very scenic views. On that day (Sunday) there were a couple of volunteers with private telescopes which they let you use and gave information about the sea life and history of the area. There were hundreds of noisy sea lions on the rocky islands just off the shoreline and we even saw a few whales blowing big puffs of spray when they surfaced. As we left the park we missed the turn on Seven Devils Road which was recommended to as an alternate route back to 101 so we gassed up before we continued on.
I had also read about great hot dogs at the Langolis Market & Deli so we had to check them out. They had just closed as we got there, but someone let us in thinking we had just left and had forgotten something. Hah! Anyway, the dogs are smallish and very good, but I'm not so sure they are worth the hype I've read. Still, if you like a good hot dog and you're near there, give them a try.
We are now in the B&B "Home on the Sea" in Port Orford and the weather was perfect until just before town the fog moved in about 5pm so no photos late today. Hopefully in the morning the sky will be clear.


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