Coast Drive

After many rainy days, today promised to be partly sunny so we took a chance and went south for the day. As we neared North Bend, we saw this interesting bridge. It's called the McCullough Bridge and it goes over Coos Bay.

To the west we caught glimpses of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area that hugs the coast from Coos Bay to Florence. Needless to say, there are a lot of toyhauler camper trailers carrying ATVs here.

McCullough Bridge is very pretty.

Headed into North Bend on Hwy 101.

We got off Hwy 101 and headed west to the coast. This is a beautiful area at Sunset Bay State Park. This photo and the next eight can be put together in a 360° view of where we were.

Nolan even included the parking lot with our car in it.

We went on down the road and saw this beautiful view. Much prettier in person.

Next stop was Shore Acres State Park and Botanical Gardens. We had to pay $5 to park here so I fed $10 into the machine and received new Presidential dollar coins back. First ones I have ever seen. Shore Acres is comprised of some of the land holdings of shipbuilder Louis J. Simpson. He built a mansion overlooking the ocean and developed five acres of formal gardnes. The mansion burned down in 1921 and he built a larger home. Financial losses during the Depression resulted in poor upkeep of both the house and grounds. The state of Oregon purchased most of the grounds and the home in 1942 for use as a public park. The mansion was in such poor condition and the upkeep was more than the state could afford so it was razed.

First we visited the gardens. It is planted in various annuals that result in a flowery display for every season. Since we are there in the spring, we saw the rhododendrons in bloom. I love rhodys.

The grounds include this pond and statuary.

We even saw this 10' tall Monkey Puzzle tree.

We liked this Japanese Plume Cedar

Then we headed off to the trails. This is Simpson beach.

We climbed down to Simpson Beach.

We saw shingles being used as slip resistant material on some steps and on this bridge.

There were several areas that had interesting rock formations.

We walked along the trail for quite a while. It was muddy in quite a few places. If we had binoculars, we could have seen the sea lions on these rocks. We could definitely hear them long before we saw them.

Then we headed back north on Hwy 101 but got side tracked at Winchester Bay by the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.

Oysters and mussels are cultivated in this trangle-shaped jetty system along the shore. Read more about it in the next photo.

Another couple asked us to take their photo so we had them take one of us. The temperature was in the low 50's.

Loon Lake Lodge and RV Resort

Our home for this summer. This is a beautiful area but it take manuevering a 9 mile curvy road to get here. When I first came around the corner and saw the lake, I thought "how beautiful". Then I realized that it was Loon Lake and it would be our home for the summer.

The Lodge is about 100' above the lake with camping on the next level down then another level down to get to a small dock. The small dog is Daisy. She belongs to the managers.

To the right of the lodge is the gas station. I don't know if someone will be out managing it this summer.

To the left is the manager's house then this 6-room motel.

When you enter the lodge, you can go straight through to the deck. You see some of the lake if you stand out there but mostly you just see trees.

If you walk out onto the deck and look back, this is what you see.

If you look to the right once you re-enter the lodge, you will see the check in desk/cashier and some of the store.

More of the store. The opposite end of the lodge houses a restaurant.

Once out of the lodge and back to the road, you drive or walk 1/2 mile down to the main part of the resort. Since I will be working at the lodge, I will be walking back and forth so I'll be getting some exercise.

At the bottom of the hill you see two cottages to the left, then the bathhouse and a cabin.

After you get past the cottages and look to the left, you can see the main rv parking area. Of course the blue spot is our truck. All the RV's so far belong to workampers.

Our site. We had to put up the external wi-fi antenna and card to pull in the park wi-fi.

Across the way from us are five cabins.

Looking back toward the road and the lake.

Another look at the bathhouses. The showers are great because you have your own room.

Walking down to the lake you pass by some lakeside rv sites on the way to the dock.

To the left is the swimming area with the boat ramp to the right of it. To the right of the boat ramp is the dock.

The dock has a snack shack and a fuel pump.

For rent are paddleboats,

waverunners,

fishing boats,

This ??? maybe fishing platform? and kayaks.

While we were exploring the resort, we found the yurts that can be rented,

and some tent sites.

From those tent sites, we found a trail down to a dack at lakeside.

There are many houses on the other side of the lake and we don't think there is a road to them. They have to drive their car to our side of the lake and take their boats across.

When we got back to our trailer, this domestic bunny was hanging around out trailer. I guess he's been hanging around here for a while.