After one last gym visit and swim we checked out of our hotel in Cannon Beach and said goodbye to the cute bunny rabbits.
We stopped briefly to see the residents of the Haystack – the tufted puffins. Through the binoculars we could watch them flying about and heading into their burrows to feed their chicks. Then we set off South. We skirted around Portland and headed down the 5 only to stop overnight in sleepy little Coburg. Unfortunately we chose bin day and we’re woken at 5.30am by the dustmen and then 7.30am by the park keepers doing the strimming. Ah well, best get back on the road.We drove to Grant’s Pass and the sun came out, shortly followed by our shorts – wow it felt hot. We had our lunch sitting in the Riverside Park watching the geese, squirrels and jays. We were all enjoying the sunshine.
We headed back towards the coast and took a detour at Cave Junction to see Oregan Caves National Monument. The marble caves were lovely and our private tour with Ranger Melinda was fab. We even saw a rare Springtail “thing” that was only found in those caves. We also found a rarity in Melinda – an American who was keen on travelling and experiencing other cultures!
We decided to walk the cliff path back to do visitor centre, and upon finding ourselves as the only ones left there, we decided to cook out dinner in the sunshine accompanied only by birdsong.
It was so nice and quiet that we decided to move just down the road and stayed in a little side road. We didn’t hear a single car all night, only the sounds of the rushing river we were next to.Today we visited The Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum in Obrien. Gary, the ex-smokejumper was very informative and explained the daring and courageous job these guys did, putting forest fires out before they became a big problem. Landing in amongst the big trees sounded a big problem to me!
Then we crossed into California. I was very relieved that the border guys let us keep out avocados as we went through the checkpoint at the State Border. We went on to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park to see the big Redwoods. We walked the Stout Grove Loop and passed some huge trees. Apparently there are some as large as 104 metres tall and 5 metres in diameter!
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