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Road Trip – Oregon Coast, CA & Utah

Ross Levin
Mural by the California Coast

Mural by the California Coast

Let’s go to Seattle

(click any picture to view all pictures as a slide show)

The first leg of this trip was a direct shot to Seattle with a brief interlude in Boise, ID.  After a great visit with Zach and Mackenzie in Colorado, they were ready to go back to their home in Seattle.

Zach & Mack on the Pence Park hike

Since we were going to be on the west coast, we decided to take advantage of our location and tour the Oregon coast.  After the Oregon coast, we would decide whether to head back home from there or head down to Death Valley before heading home.  Read on to see how this adventure ends…

Mackenzie driving the Sprinter

White Knuckle Driving

The drive through Wyoming was a white knuckle affair with I-80 covered with black ice over long stretches in combination with 40+ MPH side winds.  The combined effect making it very difficult to keep the van on the road.  The pucker effect was strong along this stretch of road.

We still have the stock Vanco tires that came with the van.  Few people have anything good to say about these tires for driving in winter conditions.  After this, I have nothing good to say about them either.  A tire upgrade to the popular BFG KO2 has moved up a few notches on our priority list.

Ice warning sign on I-80 in Wyoming Jack knifed tractor trailer on I-80 in Wyoming Wind Warning Sign in Wyoming along I-80

We made it through Wyoming safely and stayed the night in Boise.  In previous visits to Boise, we’ve found it to be a bicycle friendly and comfortable town to visit.  While we weren’t riding in Boise this time, we felt it was a great place to stay and get breakfast before continuing on to Seattle.  We took a little time to tour the downtown area and grab a nice breakfast.

Capitol in Boise

Astoria

After a quick goodbye to Zach & Mack in Seattle, Sue and I turned south to tour the Oregon coast.  The first stop was Astoria, a quaint port city near the coast where the Columbia river meets the Pacific ocean.

View of Astoria from Dismal Nitch, Washington
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Astoria Column The western view from the Astoria Column View from the Astoria Riverwalk

Oregon Coast

We were attracted to the Oregon coast because of the images we’ve seen of the dramatic rocky shores.  This is in stark contrast to what we’ve been accustomed to when living near the Jersey Shore earlier in our lives where the beaches are smooth and sandy.  We did find some similarities between the rocky shores and lighthouses of the Oregon coast and those of the Maine coast.  Our timing was also fortunate in that the grey whale migration was underway.  The Oregon State Parks service works with whale watching enthusiasts to identify optimal land based locations for whale watching as well as having folks available to educate visitors about the whales and their migration.  We used the info on the state park website  to make sure we visited as many of these spotting locations on our tour.  We found that the Oregon state campgrounds are some of the best state run campgrounds we’ve visited.   The Oregon State Parks website is also one of the better park websites for navigation and information.

 

The coastline from Fort Stevens State Park The coastline from Fort Stevens State Park

Haystack Rock

Perhaps one of the most iconic images from the Oregon Cost is that of Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.

Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park

There are actually 3 towns on the Oregon coast that lay claim to having a Haystack Rock.  The most famous being the one in Cannon Beach.  Pacific City has a much larger Haystack Rock, but it is about a mile off-shore making it less imposing.  Lastly, the Haystack Rock by the town of Bandon requires an awful lot of imagination to see a haystack.  I might call it more of a Hay Bale Rock.  Anyway, we saw them all and many others.

Cannon Beach Haystack Rock Pacific City Haystack Rock Bandon Haystack Rock

The Living Coastline

There are many natural features along the Oregon coast that are only accessible and visible during certain times of day depending on tides and weather conditions.  The waterfall at Hug Point, for instance, is not something that we saw written up.  When we stopped there, the tide was low and we explored the beach and happened along a relatively large waterfall.  At high tide, this would not be accessible.  Likewise, the ghost forest, which is next to Proposal Rock is submerged at high tide.

Waterfall at Hug Point Proposal Rock and Ghost Forest Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area Haceta Lighthouse Devil’s Punchbowl Devil’s Cauldron Natural Bridges Cove Sea Lions and cormorants at Yaquina Head Natural Bridges Cove Arch Rock Rocky shoreline in Oregon Yaquina Head Lighthouse
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We saw people that saw whales Pacific Ocean from Oregon Face Rock, do you see the profile?

Redwood Forests

Our time  in Oregon was met with unseasonably cold temperatures along with driving rains and fog.  We did have some short periods of visibility but were anxious to get to a more comfortable climate in California.  Our first stop in CA was the Redwood National And State Park.  The immensity of these ancient trees is difficult to capture or even describe.  They can be over 350 feet tall and weigh over 4,000,000 lbs. and can live for 2000 years.  This is a great place to walk through the forests, disrupting your sense of scale and contemplate the universe.  It is fun to think about what was happening in human history when these trees were saplings, got scars or even died.

Sue near a redwood stump Looking up at the redwoods Mushroom on a redwood

Santa Rosa, CA

We arrived in Santa Rosa a couple months after the Tubbs Fire.  The devastation, scars and debris were still apparent as we made our way to the Spring Lake Park which would be our staging area for our first bike ride of this road trip in Annadel State Park.  This park is touted as some of the best mountain biking in the Bay area, so it seemed like we ought to check it out.  Unfortunately, when we got there, we saw the notices that about half of the park is closed due to the burn.  There were still plenty of good trails available and we had an enjoyable, scenic ride.  The encouraging part was that the areas that were burned already had several inches of grass growing.  It is amazing how quickly nature can recover.

Annadel State Park MTB

Death Valley

We only had a day to explore Death Valley since this part of the trip was not really pre-planned.  We also had not educated ourselves on what to expect and only went in with our preconceived notions of miles and miles of desert sand.

Sue navigating the sand dunes

To our surprise, we found salt flats, streams with fish, ghost towns and some of the most colorful mountain sides we’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, the air was smoky and hazy making for some drab photographs that my basic skills as a photographer could not overcome.

Reflections in Death Valley Death Valley Devil’s Golf Course, Death Valley Sue checking out the Salt Flats

Valley of Fire State Park

The Valley of Fire State Park is famous for its bright red sandstone features embedded within white and grey sandstone formations.  The latest trail to open in the park leads to a red and white formation called fire wave.  There is no mountain biking allowed in this park, but road riding any of the paved roads throughout the park is allowed.  Unfortunately, we did not have our road bikes with us on this trip.  We did hike a couple of the trails (Fire Wave and White Dome) in the park and were able to view many of the sandstone formations.

Sue surfing the fire wave Sandstone caves The Sprinter at the park entrance White Dome Trail, Valley of Fire Valley of Fire The Narrrows, Valley of Fire State Park

Southwest Utah

The St. George/Virgin/Hurricane area has become a hotbed for mountain biking.  We’ve stayed in this area before to visit Bryce & Zion national parks.  It was tough to bypass those beautiful places when we were so close. This time we were focused on riding in St. George.  We chose the Bearclaw Poppy trailhead to begin the ride.

Relive ‘St. George, UT’

MTB St. George, UT MTB St. George, UT MTB St. George, UT

If you tour the Oregon coast, here is some info to help plan your route & stops.

Places to camp:

Coastline stops & whale watching locations:

Beach towns worth a visit along the way:

Improvements

With each road trip, we come up with new ideas and items that make travel easier.  Here are a few from this trip.

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