Visiting the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area [5/18]

We left the previous part with stormy weather on the Oregon coast, but as we kept driving further south the sky cleared, and by the time we entered Florence, Oregon, we even had some sun in the sky. We ate lunch in Florence and walked around in the town, mainly focused on the biggest destination of that day: the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. It's a place where desert meets the ocean, which covered a huge part of the coast, and which also feels like you have dropped off at the end of the world. It was a really great day and we eventually drove to Coos Bay where we spent the night. Follow us in this part and let me show you what we discovered along the way.

This is only a part of our travel series to the Pacific Northwest

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An Afternoon in Florence

As soon as I saw the name Florence, my mind went to Italy, but as it's common in the USA, there are a lot of towns with the same name as in Europe. Florence is a small town, but very charming. It's hard sometimes to find really charming towns along the Oregon coastline. There are a lot of great places, but the towns are mostly not newsworthy. Florence is different. It feels like it's a small jewel, with a small park, nice stores and restaurants, and a nice bridge that leads out of town.

The Florence area was originally inhabited by the Siuslaw tribe of Native Americans. Some claim that the city was named after state senator A. B. Florence, who represented Lane County from 1858 to 1860; another claim is that Florence was named after a French vessel that was wrecked at the mouth of the Siuslaw River on February 17, 1875. Today the Siuslaw river flows through town and at it's shores there is a park and small walking area.

A "Private" sign has never kept me out :)

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Our drive had to continue. After paying 5$ at a self-pay station entering the national park, we parked at the Oregon Dunes parking lot. There are many of them, but we chose the main one, which leads from the Highway 101. Of course this area is best explored in summer, with many camps and RV parking spots. One popular activity is racing on the dunes (which I could never do), but on this day we simply walked and explored the dunes, ready to see the wast desert, bordering the Pacific Ocean.

The Oregon Dunes are a unique area of windswept sand that is the result of millions of years of wind and rain erosion on the Oregon Coast. These are the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes in North America. Some dunes tower up to 500 feet (150 m) above sea level, providing numerous recreational opportunities including off-road vehicle use, hiking, photography, fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, and camping. Interesting to me was that author Frank Herbert was inspired (in part) to write the famous science fiction novel Dune based on his research about the dunes of this area.

When you get on top of a dune, two amazing sights wait for you. One is the never ending desert and woods area. It seems like there are no towns, no roads, no people here. The other sight is the shoreline. The amazing sand dunes lead into the ocean. We just sat on top of the dunes and took in the sights. Once you are in the tall grass you don't want to get up. It's so comforting and relaxing here. Just be careful when you get up there, it can be steep in places, and the sand can swallow your steps.

Arriving in Coos Bay

At the end of the day we arrived in Coos Bay. We rented a relatively big room at the Motel 6 (which charges extra for wifi, such a bummer by the way), and immediatly went out for dinner. Coos Bay is connected with North Bend, Oregon, another city. We actually had dinner there at this (more then we expected) fancy Italian restaurant, called "Little Italy Restaurant". The portions were so huge that we had leftovers for lucnh the other day. But it was very delicious, really amazing food.

At the end of the night we came back to the motel, ready to get a good night sleep. We only had one more whole day left on the coast and then we would start to explore inland Oregon. Great weather would return the next day with many amazing sights and places waiting to be explored.

End of Part Five

To be continued...

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