After a fancy breakfast at the hotel, Jeff and I decided to check out the closest of the local waterfalls the staff had recommended. We had the trail entirely to ourselves, which allowed for a more leisurely pace so I could really get a look at everything. There were plenty of interesting flowers scattered along the way, as well as signs of how the forest continually renews itself. At one point, we saw a smattering of ferns and saplings growing out of a long-downed giant log and a nearby stump. It made me think of the episode of Magic School Bus where Miss Frizzle teaches about decomposers. I didn’t think I needed to poke around to see the bugs, though.
Pearsony Falls looks to be a confluence of various streams that feed into a creek, which flows into the Rogue River. Incidentally, there’s something about the name I like, maybe the alliteration, maybe the sense of intrigue and adventure it implies. Anyway, I told Jeff that I think of Eden as this kind of place, with flowing water, birdsong, and lush growth all around. I could stay beside running water indefinitely.
We headed back into Medford to get some sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and then started the first leg of our coastal drive in earnest. We would need to cross briefly into California before connecting with US-101 back in Oregon. At the border crossing, we had to pull over and declare any agricultural products. We forgot about the lettuce on our deli sandwiches, but I don’t think that’s what the state of California means. We stopped at the Collier Tunnel rest area for a picnic, and then drove through the northern tip of the Redwood National Forest. Parts of the forest still bore the scars of fire. I look forward to coming back to northern California to really get a look at the Redwoods, because the height and girth of what I did see was jaw dropping.
The coast of Oregon is pretty fascinating, with the Pacific Ocean on one side of a narrow area of land, and mountains on the other side, with farm land in between. We pulled off at various viewpoints on the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor, a stretch of road roughly between Brookings and Gold Beach. We stayed at some longer than others, enjoyed some more secluded than others, and finally headed for our rest for the night at Pacific Reef Hotel. This is one of the only places we are staying with easy access to the beach, so we stayed up long enough to go down for the sunset. Then Jeff attended a light show and short film of the area’s history that the hotel puts on while I got ready for bed. It was a long but good day.
