Pacific Coast Adventure - Day 4

Coastal Driving

Leaving our hotel in Portland, we made our way down the coast so the seaport town of Newport, Oregon. Newport is a bustling town of over 10,000 inhabitants. Historically, the Bayfront was Newport’s economic backbone, housing a port for the commercial fishing and wood products industries. Today, the Bayfront is still home to one of Oregon’s largest commercial fishing fleets. The Bayfront is a working waterfront one where the Travel Masters enjoyed shops, restaurants, sites of the fish processing plants all in turn-of-the-century storefronts from a bygone era.

After a wonderful lunch overlooking the port and some time for a bit of shopping, we boarded the coach and took the scenic drive along the coast. Truly, there were wondrous sights out of the windows as we were treated to the towering surf crashing onto the rocks on the right and huge forests of trees on the left. Quite the delight for the eyes as well as the stiff necks we all got turning from left to right to take it all in.

The Dunes

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area stretches approximately 40 miles along the Oregon Coast from Florence to Coos Bay.  Formed by the ancient forces of wind, water and time, these dunes are like no others in the world. The Dunes are a unique area of windswept sand that is the result of millions of years of wind, sun, and rain erosion on the Oregon Coast. These are the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes in North America. Some dunes tower up to 150 meters above sea level. Will we be dune buggying these sandy wonders? We shall see. OK, we did. Sandland Buggy Tours providing the Travel Masters with unimaginable thrills from the top to bottom of many of the scenic dunes in the National Recreation Area. Our guide was informative and a bit daring as you can see by the photos covering approximately 8 miles of dunes and 2 miles of ocean beach. The Wind-sculpted sand dunes towering to 500 feet above sea level provided the Travel Masters an unbelievable experience!  Climbing and descending through the most beautiful, impressive dunes was an unforgettable experience many, if not all us will treasure. 

Coos Bay at Leisure

We arrived at Coos Bay, Oregon in late afternoon with our evening ahead us free to explore. Prior to Europeans (and us) first visiting the Oregon coast, Native American tribes claimed the Coos Bay region as their homeland for thousands of years. Members of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Coquille tribes lived, fished, hunted and gathered along Coos Bay and its estuaries, along rivers, and in meadows and forests. We will most likely do none of that, preferring instead to enjoying a delicious meal and an evening at leisure wandering through the town. Our hotel for the night, the Red Lion Hotel Coos Bay is another fine property that we have been treated to on this tour. Comfortable beds and even a watering hole for those who choose to imbibe.

OK, so dinner for me this evening was a simple one.  No further comment 

Tomorrow, Crater Lake and on to Medford, Oregon.  Can't wait!