View from the house
Wow! Just got back from a wonderful trip to Oregon, what an amazing place! We flew into Medford and then headed down to the coast near Brookings (near the California border), where we stayed in a wonderfully rustic log cabin tucked away in the woods, with views of seastacks and rock arches in Samuel Boardman State Park.
The half-mile gravel road through the woods leading up to the house proved to be the ultimate adreneline experience of the holiday: although the track was well maintained, after experiencing the near 45 degree angle of the slope with huge drops on each side, we soon decided the ‘treat’ of a lovely hike through the woods each morning and evening was preferable and opted to leave the car at the bottom.
We spent a few days at the beach and were treated to incredible panoramas of glittering blue sea, crystal clear waters and deserted beaches. The famous sea stacks lived up to their reputation for being awe-inspiring and Jenny got to paddle in the Pacific for the first time (she wasn’t that keen though as the water was freezing!).
Grey whale in the river
We had some incredible wildlife encounters including having a seal come up and take a look at us from only a few metres away while we were paddling in a deserted cove, and seeing a beautiful grey whale from a bridge because it had swum up the river!
One of the nearby highlights of the trip was visiting Redwoods National Park, just over the state line into Northern California: the majesty of the trees was truly humbling, and we got to see several amazing groves of Coastal Redwoods, which are the tallest trees in the world. For other children of the Star Wars era, I’m sure you’ll be disappointed to hear that we spotted no Ewoks on the forest moon of Endor – they filmed large parts of ‘Return of the Jedi’ here!
Next stop Crater Lake, watch this space for the next thrilling installment…
