Oregon

PCH Day 10: We had a fairly leisurely day today as we didn't have too far to go. The weather was much better, although there was still a lot of patchy fog along parts of the coast. The landscape is changing now - the coastline seems to be more sandy beaches, although still quite rocky in areas. Also, the redwoods have given way to spruce, hemlock and Douglas fir trees and it is quite heavily forested. We passed through Coos Bay, which used to be the largest lumber port in the world and you can see the remnants of that industry, although on a much smaller scale now. The scenery is very reminiscent of Northern Ontario, with the large rivers and lakes, all surrounded or edged by pine trees. Nearer to Florence the coast becomes much more sand dunes rather than rocks. Huge sand dunes, many covered in pine trees. It looks like a fun place to get the dune buggy or quad bike out (if we had one!). We had originally planned to take a Jet Boat trip up the Rogue River, but sadly they close from the end of September (which we knew) but having seen the river, that would have been great fun. We arrived in Florence at a reasonably early hour and found our hotel straight away. Later on we shall take a drive up the Siuslaw River, which is a pretty huge river that Florence is at the mouth of.

PCH Day 11: We spent the morning in and around Florence, Oregon. The town has a lovely old downtown on the River Suislaw. We then took a drive up river for a few miles in to the wilderness and then went down to the beach at the mouth of the river. Back on Hwy 101 we headed north to our next destination, Astoria, Oregon. The surf was up again today, with some big waves. We stopped off at a number of places along the coast to admire the views and the waves. We managed to find the actual Twin Rocks this time, at exactly the right time, so we went on to the beach "and watched the sun, disappear in to the Ocean"! We took loads of photos and video. We eventually got to our hotel at about 8pm. We have a rest day tomorrow and some time to look around Astoria and the magnificent Columbia River. Tomorrow will be our final day in Oregon.