Colorado Cruiser: Pacific Coast Highway Ride

Bandera to Lincoln City

We woke up pretty early and I walked over to take a shower. There was a real chill in the air but it was clear and quiet in the woods. Bandon's KOA is one of my favorite stops. The trees and the sense of being outdoors is very calming and relaxing.

We packed up camp, then walked over to the office for pancakes. 2 ladies were in a shed behind the office with a griddle. They poured out some massive pancakes that were very good. I thought it might be too much, but it was just right.

Because the Lincoln City KOA wouldn't refund the deposit, we thought we might stay there tonight. But it was only 160 miles away and we thought we could make it allot farther. So we were fuming a bit at having to stop there and thought we'd just blow off the deposit.

But since we might have the time, we decided to backtrack a bit and go see the Cape Blanco lighthouse. When we got there the lighthouse was closed, but we were treated to the first of many beautiful views up the coast. The wind was blowing very hard and it was cold, but we hiked around and took allot of pictures.

When we finished that, we rode back past last night's KOA and on up to the town of Bandon. We followed signs out to a an overlook and got another fantastic view of beaches, seastacks (the big rocks just off the coast), and rocky bluffs.

We rode on North, and stopped at the Coos Bay Harley Davidson. The owner has a huge Rock and Roll memorabilia collection and had a few items on display including a guitar signed by the Eagles and one signed by AC/DC. We rode over to the Coos Bay docks and watched a Sea Plane taxi in. We thought about taking a ride, but it was just too much money.

The next stop was the Coos bay lighthouse not far up the road but we couldn't drive to it but we got pictures.

North of Coos bay we followed the signs off the highway and found the Umpqua lighthouse up on a high bluff with a museum nearby. For $3.00 we took a great tour of the area, and even got to climb up inside, and poke our heads up INTO the spinning lense. This lighthouse is still active and in constant use. It has a perfect Fresnel lens. Many of the lighthouses have been retired and most have been vandalized over the years, but this one is in pristine condition.

The guide told us that the Coast Guard maintains the lighthouse. We learned about all of the work it took for 3 men and their families to keep the lighthouse running.

We stopped at the Seal caves, but we'd already seen elephant seals mating, seals on the docks in San Francisco, and seals on the rocks all along the coast, so we kept our $10.00 and rode on. We saw another lighthouse just beyond, but also decided to skip the mile walk and the fee.

By the time we got to Newport, we'd ridden into and out of allot of fog banks. Every time we'd hit fog, the temperature would drop 15 degrees and we'd freeze, then we'd come out and slowly warm back up. Newport was in the fog, so we were very glad to get into a restaurant and warm back up again.

The final 20 miles to the KOA was mostly through fog, so we skipped the last 2 lighthouses, and by the time we got to the Lincoln City KOA we were tired and not at all sorry to have to stop there.

We only covered 200 miles of highway 101 today, but we probably rode 300 with all the side trips.

Me sitting at the picnic table writing my emails.