Summer Road Trip Part 4: On the road again

The conference was over. It was time to start our way back home. We decided to travel home along the coast. It made the trip longer (a lot longer), but we had never seen that part of the country before. It was amazing! It looked somewhat like what I picture Hawaii looking like (never been there ether), minus the palm trees and warm weather. It was still quite cold. It was so green and lush. The smells were unbelievable.


Royd had found this fun river trip thingy on the Internet so we were headed to Gold Beach. We got a little distracted. As we were driving through a cute little beach town we saw "Beach View" painted on the road with an arrow. So, like good tourists we followed the arrow. It was a great view and worth the detour. We thought if we hurried we could still make the river trip.

After the slight distraction we were on the road again. We traveled another hour or so, when we saw another sign. Oregon State Park: Arizona Beach. We had to stop again. It was so beautiful. We took off our shoes to run in the sand.

This was the neatest beach I have ever seen. The sand was so smooth, it felt like my feet were getting a spa treatment. Because the sand was black (yes black), this beach was a lot warmer than the others. We were able to get a little wet. As we walked around the beach we found beautiful white rocks all over the black sand. The boys collected a few for me. This was one of my favorite stops on our trip.

After the refreshing break we were on the road once again. This time we were running a lot late. We didn't know if we were going to make to the river trip. We arrived in Gold Beach just after the last river boat left, darn. We had to make a decision. It was still early afternoon. We could keep on the road and head to the Redwoods, or get a hotel and go on the river trip first thing in the morning. You only live once so we booked the trip, and started looking for a hotel. Finding a hotel turned out to be an adventure. Royd finally found a vacancy, but the price tag was steep.

Gold Beach is an old mining town on the coast. It is located where the Rouge River empties in to the ocean. During the gold rush panners flocked here. They mostly found gold dust, which is very hard to mine. The temperature stays between 45-60 degrees year round. As you head up the river the temperatures change drastically.

We checked into our very expensive hotel. It was a dive, but it was clean. I couldn't help feeling ripped off, until sunset. I guess we paid for the view.

To Be Continued ...