Saturday, August 18, 2018

Escape to the Coast!

August 16 & 17, 2018

Southern Oregon has been hit with numerous wildfires since mid-July.  It seems we are surrounded by fires and the Rogue Valley is a natural catch-all for the smoke.  As a result we have hiked very little and those hikes have been local and short due to the air quality.  So it is only natural that like other hike deprived hikers, we had to venture out a ways to get to some clean air for our "fix" of hiking.

Time for some hiking at the coast!

We packed up the car, Katie included, and drove to Gold Beach for a few days. We also managed to stop at Harris Beach SP in Brookings on the way to and from Gold Beach for some hiking.

Path from our lodging to the beach....
Beautiful ocean!


































From our cabin at Ireland's Rustic Lodges in Gold Beach, we hiked out to and along the beach to Kissing Rock enjoying the beautiful and wide beach under clear blue skies.  Katie especially enjoys beach hikes and rolled in the sand and/or on rocks numerous times.  We also enjoy beach hikes but due to other people being on the beach, we refrained from rolling in the sand on our backs like Katie.

Kissing Rock
We also made a stop at the Cape Sebastian Viewpoint and hiked the Oregon Coast Trail in each direction from the parking lot.  It felt great to be among the trees and ferns with the wind blowing and to have views of the ocean and coastline.  The  hikes were not that long, but it felt great to get out and stretch our legs.


View of Oregon Coast along the OCT

OCT winding its way through the trees.

































We also took time to just sit back and enjoy the sights, sounds and smell of the Oregon Coast.  It truly was a much needed break for us and we ended up hiking over 11 miles too!

Arch rock at North Myers Creek Beach
Hopefully the fires will subside in time for some Autumn hiking as there are lots of trails we really enjoy during that time of year.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol