Our travel adventures today included a farmers market, a river walk, a lighthouse tour, and a hike around a clear lake with views of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Sorry to disappoint our friend Paul, but we did not rent an ATV to try out on the dunes. Every campground we passed was clearly full of people there to enjoy the dunes with all sizes of offroad vehicles parked everywhere.

Nesting Egrets

The Fish and Wildlife volunteers from yesterday mentioned looking up at the trees along the bridge in Charleston to see the nesting egrets. It’s weird to see tall shore birds standing up in the trees.

Coos Bay Farmers Market

Coos Bay (pretty good-sized town) has a farmers market every Wednesday during the summer. That was another item Aunt Carole found for us – such a good tour guide. 🙂 We found street-side parking just a block away from the market which is on Central Ave. We purchased a blueberry pastry for immediate shared consumption and mushroom soup and strawberries for later.

Coos Bay River Walk

After stowing the soup and strawberries back in Usain, we walked just a few blocks down to the Coos River. This is clearly a working port area with tug boats, fishing boats and cargo boats. This is the largest deep harbor between San Francisco and Puget Sound. The River Walk has displays of the lumber and fishing industries’ history and includes some tug boats and a slice of a 300+ year old tree.

Front Street Food Trucks

The Front Street Food Truck court in Coos Bay was just getting set up as we arrived, but Frying Nemo (cue horrified children) served up some fish and chips to Tony. The fries he shared were quite delicious, and he enjoyed his fish and coleslaw.

Lumber still a big business

On our way out of Coos Bay, we noticed a huge pile of sawdust/wood chips and stacks of logs going on and on. I didn’t know that lumber trucks carry their back axles when empty of logs. We followed one like this up the Bald Hills Road in the Redwood Forest park.

Umpqua River Light House

This lighthouse is part of a state park, but there is a fee to tour the tower and the museum. It was a unique tour as we were able to stick our heads up inside the Fresnel Lens and this one has red on it that makes it especially pretty. The original lighthouse here was built in 1857 at the mouth of the river, but was destroyed in a flood seven years later. Authorities decommissioned it at that time, but after several shipwrecks decided one was still needed but up higher out of flood range. This “new” one, built in 1894, still sends out its two-white-one-red flash signals.

The Fresnel Lens must be rotated, and originally the mechanism had to be wound by hand every 70 minutes. If the lens can’t rotate, it has to be covered by curtains to prevent sunlight shining through the prisms and starting fires.

The Coast Guard has a manned station down by the beach, and maintains a base with housing here. During WWII, one hundred troops patrolled the beach on horseback with dogs.

Beach Walk and then to the Sugar Shack

We made a run to nearby Reedsport, Oregon after walking the beach and before checking in at our camp site for the night (can’t check in before 4:00 PM). The lighthouse tour guide and the other couple I was with insisted that a trip to the Sugar Shack Bakery was a must do. Tony found kettle corn (a huge favorite of his) after missing it at the farmers market earlier. I got a layered chocolate pudding cup for my sugary treat.

Cute Critter Sighting: while walking down the road along the breakwater wall we saw a mother river otter and three little ones cross the path right in front of us. It happened so quickly we didn’t have a chance to take a picture.

Lake Maria and the Sand Dunes

After checking into the campground at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park (no gate – didn’t need to wait until 4:00 PM after all) we hiked around Lake Maria and stepped out onto the sand dunes to watch some UTVs go by. The lake water was very clear.

We could see one camper sitting out in the sand dunes. The lighthouse tour guide mentioned the big UTV Takeover event that happens each August here (June at the Coos Bay end of the dunes) where UTV lovers descend on the area and camp out on the sand. When the week is over, bulldozers get to work pulling out all the campers that are stuck.

The Umpqua Lighthouse State Park campground is small and relatively new with nice bathroom facilities, and close proximity to the lighthouse. The hot showers were a long trek down (and back up) the hill from our site near the campground entrance, but flush toilets were available without the long walk. The beach is small but protected from big waves and not connected to the campground. There is just the one hike around the lake from the campground. UTV fun is maybe more important than hiking here; they get their own lanes on the roads.