Oregon: The Beaver State

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest, north of California, south of Washington State, on the pacific coast. Oregon enjoys a diverse landscape including a scenic and windswept coastline, the volcanoes of a rugged and glaciated Cascade Mountains, dense evergreen forests and even high deserts to the east.

Large areas of Douglas fir and Redwoods grow along the rainy western Oregon coast. Mount Hood is the highest point in the State, standing at 11,299 feet. The capital of Oregon is Salem, although the largest city is Portland. A very green part of the US, green from all the rain that gets swept in from the Pacific.

My first stop in Oregon is in a town called Coos Bay, this area, on the Pacific coast, is full of lighthouses, Cape Blanco, Coquille lighthouse and Umpque lighthouse, it also has a lot of State beaches, probably one of the reasons for all the lighthouses is the sea fog that rolls in every morning, cold air off the Pacific meets warmer air on land, sometimes it is after lunch before the sun gets through.

Sea fog brings with it a kind of silence, it is very photogenic with banks of fog rolling in at low level, sometimes the top’s of the tall Redwood’s stick up above the fog. Walking on the beach, you can only see so far in front and so far behind before all disappears in the cotton wool fog. I found a first class site here in Coos Bay, I saw it on passing, situated between Safeway which was great for stocking up without taking the motor home to the supermarket, and the harbour, a good view of this very busy timber port, the largest on the whole west coast. Timber arrives by sea, by road and by train, it is turned into plywood building board, the boards leaving on long freight trains of specially built freight cars.

I enjoyed my stay in Coos Bay, it had a busy purposeful feel about it, lots of people all busy and shops, as I say, a very busy port and again that lovely scent of Redwood timber.

“Jessie M Honeyman” State Park is my next night stop, I don't know who she was but her name continues, a rather different site, running along the cliffs, covered in very tall, straight, pine trees, parking is a tight fit, I managed to reverse in ok, at times like this, another person with you would be very handy, as I say, I got in, but with so many trees, I could only have space for one or other of my slide outs, opting for the bedroom one.