Gold Beach, Oregon RVing

Only 139 miles down the road, our first stop on the Oregon Coast was Gold Beach. It's hard to go too far too fast on the coastal highway because it's just so beautiful, I want to stop at every viewpoint to gawk at the surf crashing around the seastacks. It doesn't help that mom keeps screaming at every turn, "Look at that Malia -- oh, never mind, watch the road -- but you just oughta see this!" I can't resist, so I pull over and even though we've only gone a couple of miles, each viewpoint is equally worthy of a peak and a picture.

A Gold Beach legendary lady has seen better days - The Mary D. Hume was built from a 141 foot white cedar tree cut just downstream from this spot. She was launched in 1881 from this dock and remained in active service for the next 97 years, a record for any vessel on the Pacific Coast. A long, diverse, and sometimes tragic history led her back here in 1978 within feet of the place of her birth for her final resting place. At least she has a great view of the beautiful Patterson Rogue River Bridge.

Our first home in the area was at Turtle Rock Resort. See my Malia's Miles pages about this great place and its owners for more pictures and details.

A short path from the park brought us to this beach where mom found her "treasure" of a feather from a seagull. This was one of our favorite seastacks and even though it was quite chilly and windy, we enjoyed watching the waves crash around it.

Our favorite neighbor and the park's namesake, Turtle Rock. Use your imagination and I'm sure you'll see why it's aptly named.

One day we took a drive out to see the Myrtlewood trees near Lobster Creek. The trail was too steep for mom, so she wanted to just sit and soak it all in. I went on ahead for a little bit. Coming back down, I caught this picture of her sitting on the bench looking like she was in church, she was in such awe. (She's the red dot in the middle of the forest.)